Manchester United will be sans Marouane Fellaini, Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ander Herrera when they head to St. John’s Stadium to take on Huddersfield Town. This FA Cup fifth round clash means that the two sides will meet for the third time this season. The Red Devils and Terriers split the first two meetings, both coming in Premier League action, so this will be the so-called “rubber match” of the 2017-18 campaign.
Prior to this term, the two clubs had not faced each other in 46 years.
It is thought that United could see Bailly and Ibrahimovic return to action before the month is over, while Fellaini remains out until at least mid-to-late March, as he recovers from knee surgery. Striker Marcus Rashford is a doubt, with an update on the young striker expected to come tomorrow during manager Jose Mourinho’s media session.
Manager David Wagner will host United with a fair amount of confidence, especially so for being such heavy underdogs. They have beaten United once already this season, and are well aware that Mourinho is likely to rest some starters for this one.
On the other side, Tommy Smith could return from a head injury which kept him out of action last weekend. However, Chris Löwe and Laurent Depoitre are likely to remain injury.
United starting XI prediction: go to this link
Jose Mourinho press conference video: go to this link
Odds via bwin: Huddersfield 7/1, Draw 333/100, Manchester United 11/25
Prediction: United 3, Huddersfield Town 0
As always, feel free to post your own Man United and/or Huddersfield starting XI prediction, as well as your forecast for the final score.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune corporation blogging community Chicago Now.
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