Heading into the Manchester Derby, City are true road warriors right now. “This is our fourth game away in a row and we have another one on Sunday at Old Trafford,” Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said after the FA Cup fifth round win at Sheffield Wednesday in midweek. “We spent a lot of mental energy in the last games and then came here.”
“But the players were absolutely ready, we didn’t concede one shot on target and that means a lot for our capacity to read the game. At the end we scored a goal and could have scored much, much more.”
The Spaniard added that he believes winning that game will help get City in the right frame of mind for the massive rivalry clash this weekend: “It’s better to go there winning games, being in the FA Cup, than being out.”
“Tomorrow we’re going to watch a little bit of United versus Derby to analyse what they have done the last game, and we’re going to go there to try to win.”
Let’s take a look at who Pep might select in his first team for this one.
Manchester City Starting XI Prediction:
Ederson; Walker, Otamendi, Fernandinho, Mendy; Gundogan, De Bruyne, Rodri; Mahrez, Aguero, Sterling
Manchester Derby FYIs
Starting XI Predictions: United
Team news for both sides: go to this link
FA Cup ties for both clubs: go to this link
Kickoff: 4:30 BST, March 8, Old Trafford
Google Result Probability: Manchester City win 58%, Draw 23%, Manchester United win 19%
Form Guide: Manchester City WWLWD Manchester United- DWWDL
Series history: Manchester United wins 74 Draws 52 Manchester City wins 54
Prediction: Manchester United 2, Manchester City 2
A lot of people are not giving United a chance in this one, but remember that was the narrative heading into the last meeting in December, and you all remember how that turned out.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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