The first is how seriously Nuno Espirito Santo categorises the competition when his side are serious contenders to finish in the top four of the Premier League, the second is whether they can pull out of their current blip.
Injuries to key players would seriously threaten to disrupt Forest’s charge towards Champions League football next season but winning the FA Cup would bring major silverware to the City Ground for the first time since retaining the League Cup and winning it for a fourth time in 1990.
Forest are third in the table but one point from the last nine means they are just seven clear of Aston Villa who are tenth. Their home form has been superb as they are unbeaten in their last seven league matches on the banks of the Trent, winning five alongside draws with Liverpool and Arsenal – and with those two powerhouses already out of the FA Cup there’s no obstacle left on the road to Wembley that cannot be cleared.
The Tractor Boys face a similar dilemma; do they go all out for Cup glory and risk losing crucial players as their battle to stay in the top flight looks increasingly desperate?
They are five points behind Wolves which can be clawed back but are leaking goals and missing a string of players for this last-16 tie.
Both sides rested key components in the last round, when Forest scraped through by winning a penalty shout-out at Exeter while Ipswich won 4-1 at Coventry and this could simply be won by the side which wants it more.
Ipswich have not kept a clean sheet in their last eight outings but have scored in their last six while Forest have prevented the opposition from scoring just twice in their last eight games but have scored in 14 of their last 16 matches.
There have been four or more goals in five of the last seven Forest forays and the same goes for Ipswich so the obvious bet is to take the 9/4 with Unibet and BetMGM for more than 3.5 this time around and the 5/2 with bet365 and Sky Bet for Forest to win and both teams to score.
A 3-1 home victory is 12/1 with William Hill and bet365 among others and check the team line-ups before backing Callum Hudson-Odoi at 7/2 with Sky Bet and Sammie Szmodics at 18/5 with BetMGM and Unibet to score at any time.
• Ronnie O’Sullivan has won snooker’s World Grand Prix finals twice in the last three years but has withdrawn from this year’s event in Singapore because of health issues. That leaves the door wide open for Judd Trump – runner-up for the last two years – to lift the trophy for the fourth time at 10/3 with BetVictor.
• Ireland are 5/6 pretty much across the board to beat France in Dublin on Saturday and close in on an historic third straight Six Nations success after already winning the Triple Crown.
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