Key events
23 mins: More City prewssure on the right as Silva feeds Walker whose low cross is cleared by Schar, but they’re definitely targeting Newcastle’s left, and finding plenty of encouragement.
21 mins: A quick free-kick finds Isak in the box and though City regroup, Newcastle retain possession and win a corner on the right – which comes to nothing after it’s delivered long and a flag goes up for offside.
19 mins: Gordon gets his first chance to have a run at the defence, in the inside-left. He thinks his cross has been deflected for a corner but a goalkick is given, to the whistling chagrin of the travelling fans behind that goal.
18 mins: Newcastle need to just stay in the game at the moment, because after a perky start they’re completely on the back foot. They do break down the right but Ortega clears with his head. City come again and Schar is then booked for going through the back of Haaland but it looks as if he got the ball.
15 mins: We’re back to more conventional attack v defence now, and Kovacic lobs into the box for Haaland but Dubravka comes out and gathers.
“G’Day Tom,” writes Chris Paraskevas, “Another 4:00am alarm for an only-one-outcome FA Cup Funeral procession – with the absence of all hope, this is slightly more familiar territory for Toon Fans after the meteoric / fever dream of last season. It’s quite nice of KDB to abstain this morning but it’s not as if Pep is lacking in alternatives. At least Eddie has the good sense to line up with a back five, though only Schar has played with any semblence of consistency this season. It’s incredible how quickly Newcastle’s defensive solidity has evaporated in such a short space of time.
I would say EH needs to find a solution quickly, but will he still be in the job if his team get hammered* tonight? *Lose heavily, not end up vomiting outside Hacienda at 4:32 am…” The Hacienda’s all offices now Chris anyway, nowhere safe for a man to vomit these days.
City’s first period of sustained probing pays off, breaking down the right, where they’ve been targeting the oft-maligned Burn, Bernardo exposes Willock’s narrow positioning , forcing Burn to get tight on Silva, whose effort spins off Burn and deflects into the corner.
Goal! Manchester City 1-0 Newcastle (Bernardo Silva 13)
Not sure whether this is an own goal or not, it took a strong deflection off Burn
10 mins: City suddenly have a three-on-two break with Doku piling through the middle, but his pass doesn’t find Foden – more fine defending from Botman – and Newcastle break back but Guimaraes (I think) is offside. It’s opening up.
8 mins: Lovely work from Rodri, feeding Foden in tight spaces, who plays Doku through but Murphy does really well to stay with him and see it through to the keeper.
6 mins: City’s first outbreak of trademark fluency culminates in a low ball in from the right from Foden for Haaland but Lascelles hoys it clear.
5 mins: Haaland wins a cheap free-kick, going down just after halfway under Botman’s clumsy wrestle, but Newcastle again do a decent job of defending it with a high press and City are forced right back to their own area, and Newcastle win possession, Murphy teasing in a delicate curling cross from the right that Dias just manages to cut out. Isak would have been in if he hadn’t. Promising from Newcastle.
3 mins: It looks as if Newcastle are configured with five at the back after all – their fans are making a hell of a racket, but their teams are defending at the moment, that back five doing its job and compressing the space.
1 mins: An early fumble gives Newcastle an attacking throw, but City swiftly win it back, and Doku slaloms into the area before the visitors clear for a throw.
Peep! And Man City get us under way, attacking the north end.
Out come the teams. There are 8,000 Newcastle fans in the away end, and the atmosphere is bubbling up …
Eddie Howe speaks: “Since I’ve come [cup competitions] have been a motivation, we’re determined to try and end that wait for a trophy. Last year we came very close and our motivation is to get to Wembley again but we know we have one of the best teams in the world in our way. Three games with City this season have been tight – we have posed them problems and they’ve posed us problems obviously. I believe with the players we have, we can do that. [Gordon being fir] is a big lift for us because he’s brought his best performances for us this season – he’s 100% fit, he trained for two days no problems.”
Newcastle look to have set out positively anyhow, with what looks like a 3-4-2-1, with Isak up top.
Some brief pre-match words from Pep. Asked if he enjoys this business end of the season, the City manager replies: “If you’re in contention for titles then yes, but not if you’re not. The motivation [beyond reaching six semi-finals in a row] is working out how to beat Newcastle, and there have been some very tight games against them in recent seasons.”
A reminder that this tie will go to extra-time and penalties if the scores are level here, which will delight my print colleagues on tight deadlines.
This isn’t the only televised 5.30pm kick-off – TV deals being what they are. Fulham v Spurs is on the other side. Dip in here:
A tense finale to some of Saturday’s 3pm games, with Luton getting a vital late equaliser against Nottingham Forest. Our man Smyth is across that and plenty more on Clockwatch duty.
Pre-match reading
Will Unwin on Stefan Ortega, City’s cup specialist:
And Louise Taylor on Eddie Howe’s current travails at Newcastle:
The teams
Manchester City: Ortega, Walker, Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol, Rodrigo, Kovacic, Bernardo, Foden, Doku, Haaland Subs: Carson, Stones, Ake, Grealish, Alvarez, Gomez, Nunes, Bobb, Lewis
Newcastle: Dubravaka, Murphy, Schar, Lascelles, Botman, Burn, Bruno, Longstaff, Willock, Gordon, Isak. Subs: Karius, Dummett, Ritchie, Targett, Krafth, Hall, Almiron, Anderson, Miley.
So Gordon is fit to start, which will be a much-needed boost for Newcastle. He’s been excellent lately.
Preamble
Evening everyone. Well, this clash of petro-state funded heavyweights will have to go some to match the earlier drama in the West Midlands, but let’s hope it rises to the challenge as Manchester City’s double-treble hunters take on a Newcastle side battling uneven recent form and a historically atrocious FA Cup record. This is only the Toon’s third FA Cup quarter-final in the past 19 years, with teams ranging from Cambridge and Sheffield Wednesday to Arsenal and City having sent them packing in recent times, while readers with longer memories will recall their insipid non-performances in the finals of 1998 and 1999 (not to mention 1974), and the fact they’ve not won the old pot since 1955. So no pressure, guys.
This is, however, Newcastle’s biggest match of the season and they and their fans should be bang up for this. “We’ll have a right go,” roared Eddie Howe in yesterday’s presser though he is again hampered by injury worries, most recently to the new England call-up Anthony Gordon, who is a doubt for today. And Howe himself is under pressure as his side struggle to rediscover the intensity and identity they showed last season.
City, for their part, will be without Kevin de Bruyne while Ederson is ruled out after injuring himself amid the bedlam of last Sunday’s rollicking draw at Liverpool (though Stefan Ortega is their go-to man for Cup games anyway, such are their luxuries of choice). And City haven’t lost an FA Cup tie away from Wembley for six years, when they lost at Wigan’s DW Stadium.
So yeah, Pep Guardiola’s side are sizeable favourites, but it’s the Cup, right, and as we’ve seen a little more than usual this season, upsets and magic can still happen. Don’t go anywhere.
Kick-off 5.30pm GMT.
