Manchester City v Stoke City
Saturday, February 13, 2010
FA Cup Fifth Round
City of Manchester Stadium, 5.15pm
Manchester City take on Stoke City on Saturday in the FA Cup fifth round looking to book a place in their third quarter final since 2006.
The two sides also face each other in the league midweek as fixture pile up kicks in, and City boss Roberto Mancini is likely to rotate his squad for Saturday’s game as the club’s injury crisis starts to ease.
“We are playing every three or four days, it’s impossible to always pick the same players,” he said.
“We are playing Stoke on Saturday and Tuesday, and they will be two very hard games.”Recent signing Adam Johnson is cup tied having played against City for Middlesbrough in the third round while Craig Bellamy continues to recover from a knee injury.
Striker Emmanuel Adebayor has returned to form with three goals in his last three games, but the Togo captain is happy to let strike partner Carlos Tevez hog the limelight for the good of the club.
“If he can score 30 goals and I only score a few, I’ll be more than happy,” he said.
“Because if Carlos and his goals help us to win things, I’ll be very happy for us all.
“We still have a chance to be at Wembley in the FA Cup and are in the running for fourth place in the Premier League. We will keep going and enjoy ourselves. We want to keep that dream.”
Tevez has bagged 19 goals since joining City in the summer, while Adebayor is now up to nine for the season from 16 games.
City have turned Eastlands into quite a fortress this season, and are unbeaten in 16 games there so far.
Stoke meanwhile are unbeaten in 2010 and will be looking to preserve that record.
Manager Tony Pulis knows all about City having been in charge of the Gillingham side which suffered a heartbreaking penalty defeat to the Blues in the 1999 Division 2 playoff final.
However he believes that his side can upset the odds this time.
“It’s going to be very difficult for us, but Manchester City have spent an absolute fortune on players and they will be expecting a return for that investment,” he said.
“They’ve got two chances to do that by winning the cup or qualifying for the Champions League.
“So there is that pressure on them, whereas we’re the underdogs and we’re looking forward to it. We’ll go there, give it our best shot and who knows, if we produce the right performance, we may just may be able to deliver that knockout punch.”
Defender Andy Wilkinson also feels that Stoke are in with a good chance of getting a result.
“We have shown in the past that we can prove people wrong and nobody will be expecting us to win on Saturday. If the gods are with us, then you never know,” he said.
“We know how hard the game is going to be, but we know what is at stake at the end of it. The FA Cup means a lot to everyone involved in football, and we are getting to a stage in the competition now when people start to believe that it could be their year.
“Manchester City are a very, very good side. But our confidence is sky high at the moment and we genuinely believe we can go there and get the win.”
Striker Sanli Tuncay is pushing for a start on Saturday after some recent impressive performances coming off the bench, while skipper Abdoulaye Faye is fit again having missed the last two games through injury.
Manchester City (from): Given, Taylor, Zabaleta, Richards, Bridge, Garrido, Kompany, Lescott, Toure, Boyata, Onuoha, De Jong, Vieira, Ireland, Barry, Petrov, Sylvinho, Wright-Phillips, Ibrahim, Tevez, Adebayor.
Stoke (from): Sorensen, Huth, Abdoulaye Faye, Wilkinson, Amdy Faye, Higginbotham, Collins, Lawrence, Sidibe, Whitehead, Delap, Diao, Kitson, Beattie, Etherington, Fuller, Tuncay, Pugh, Whelan, Simonsen, Begovic.
Key Players –
Manchester City – Emmanuel Adebayor
Despite being a proven goalscorer in the Premiership and averaging better than a goal every two games this season, Adebayor still appears to have something to prove to sections of the City faithful. His job is to score goals, and there are few better around at doing that, but it is his overall game that often comes in for criticism. However a few goals against Stoke is sure to shut up a few more of the doubters.
Stoke City – Matthew Etherington
With Pablo Zabaleta prone to the odd yellow card or two, Matthew Etherington will fancy his chances up against the Argentine. The tricky winger has been in great form this season and has eight assists in the league alone. An early booking for Zabaleta could see him in for a difficult afternoon.
Flashback –
Stoke City 2 – 5 Manchester City, 03/05/1998
Stoke City were the opponents for possibly Manchester City’s darkest day of their existence in 1998.
Despite hammering five goals past the hosts, City were still relegated to the old Second Division along with their opponents. Georgi Kinkladze played his last ever game for City, while Neville Southall was in goal for the Potters in front of a partisan sellout crowd of 28,000.
City’s five goals were scored by Shaun Goater (two), Paul Dickov, Lee Bradbury and Kevin Horlock while Thorne scored twice for the home side, but the game proved pointless as good results for both Port Vale and Portsmouth sent the two clubs down.
Just over a decade later both clubs have rejuvenated themselves and sit comfortable in the top tier of English football, though few will forget the feeling of depression that Sunday afternoon.
Prediction –
City 2 (Adebayor, Wright-Phillips)
Stoke 1 (Tuncay)
A massive thanks to XAVI6 from www.mancityfans.net for this FA Cup Preview