CELEBRATING at Wembley has always been something Aitor Karanka has wanted since deciding to head for England and he hopes the next time he visits the iconic stadium will end with him doing just that.

The Middlesbrough boss is potentially 180 minutes away from leading Boro out in a FA Cup semi-final beneath the big arch in north London; victory over League One’s Oxford United today would pave the way for an exciting quarter-final showdown for the right to play there.

Karanka has only been there three times. The first was when he was hit with a fine and a one-match touchline ban by the Football Association for his actions against Blackburn in December 2014, months before he returned to suffer defeat to Norwich City in the Championship play-off final.

Those were followed by his appearance with ITV as a pundit earlier this season when England went into a two-goal lead only for his Spanish homeland to recover to earn a draw, which was still not the perfect result he had hoped for.

Karanka is not getting too far ahead of himself and thinking of a return this season with Middlesbrough. He admits, though, that he would love to leave Wembley in better circumstances than he has in the past.

“After the Norwich defeat, I said I wanted to go back to Wembley and win something,” he said. “When I first flew into London to take this job (in October 2013), I was looking at Wembley from the plane and dreamed of being there one day.

“I did go there but we lost. The next step is to go there again and win. I have been back once to work for TV and also another time … when I was sent off … so two of my memories of Wembley are not great!”

Doing well in the FA Cup has always been an aim of his since taking over at the Riverside. He accepted pretty quickly that there is a greater regard for the competition here than there is in Spain for its equivalent, the Copa del Rey.

He said: “I think they are different cups. Here everyone enters the FA Cup. Every single team can play in this competition from the start and everyone can dream to go as far as they can and to play at Wembley. Here everyone starts with a dream.”

It is that sort of dream which will be driving Oxford on today. The U’s have already dumped Newcastle United out of the competition and are looking to put on a show against their North-East neighbours.

The big difference is that Middlesbrough will be at home and Karanka has been satisfied that this will be the third round in a row they have been asked to play at the Riverside against lower league opposition.

He said: “We have been lucky. The first thing is we are at home. We have a lot of games at home and it’s important to play in front of your own fans.

“It is important. Since I arrived here we have made the right steps. Someone asked me about what my biggest game is here, in the last few years we have had big games and that is good for the crowd so they can live nice moments.

“Trophies arrive with the right job and working in the way that we are working. We have to do the steps to win titles. We have to think about every single game and to know we have a nice opportunity to keep going.”

Middlesbrough do not have Adlene Guedioura available because he is cup tied, while George Friend is back in contention after recovering from calf trouble. Otherwise Antonio Barragan is the only other absentee.