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FA Cup - Third Round - Replay

Manchester City v Blackburn Rovers
Etihad Stadium, City of Manchester

Wednesday 15 January 2014
Kickoff: 2010 GMT

Referee: Craig Pawson
Assistants: Simon Beck & Harry Lennard
Fourth Official: Lee Probert

TV Coverage in UK: ITV HD ( Sky 178 ) and ITV ( Sky 103 )
Coverage starts at 2000 GMT

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Could have done without this one ... but hey, another competitive game to watch vs. a useless friendly in Al Ain ... I'll take this one every single time.

Now would be nice if we can 1-) come away with a win and continue in the FA Cup, and 2-) come out of this tie without any more injuries or knocks ...

It's the last game of the (replay) round and by last ITV has made sure it's really really the last one with a 8:10pm kick-off. Reward for winning this however is a relatively easy Fourth Round tie at home, against either the Championship side Watford or the League One side Bristol Rovers ... both of whom play a replay tomorrow night (Tuesday 14th) at 7:45pm so by the time we are kicking off, we'll know exactly who awaits in the next round (or more like who will be coming to Etihad to get thrashed on the last weekend of January).

Should be simple enough, this tie, being at the fortress Etihad and our home form and all but Blackburn Rovers shouldn't be taken lightly, especially considering we won't be able to field our strongest XI by any stretch ...

Team Selection:

Nasri is out injured of course, but so did Yaya and Dzeko took knocks last night as well so team picks itself up really, with Aguero ready to come back so expect him to get some game time off the bench in this one to get ready to start for us against Cardiff over the weekend. In that sense it's a good game to have this mid-week to give him some game time and get him match fit for the league game.

Where's Jovetic? Seriously Negredo too needs a bit of rest but now will be starting this because Jovetic is still missing somewhere. Starting to piss me right off that one ... talking of sick notes, Richards would come back and start here but won't surprise me one bit if 10 or 20 mins into the game, Zaba has to replace him (here's hoping that I am dead wrong about this).

Rest all pick themselves ... along with the usual replacements (likes of Panti, Lescott and Clichy etc) ...

Team Prediction:

Panti
Richards - Lescott - Nasti - Clichy
Navas - Ferdy - Garcia - Milner
Beast - Silva

Score Prediction:

Manchester City 4 - 0 Chicken Rovers

Won't be as easy as that but expecting Negredo to continue his goal scoring with a brace ... and then of course Aguero to come off the bench and match him for two of his own.

Cheers for this, good stuff

Thanks for the preview. I am working away this week so I will be watching on TV in Newcastle of all places. No doubt they will all be supporting Blackburn on Wednesday!

I'm hoping Aguero will make an appearence at some point in this match, possibly even start.

Agree with most of that team but I'd rather play Demichelis than Nastasic just in case we actually have some defending to do

freshie wrote:Agree with most of that team but I'd rather play Demichelis than Nastasic just in case we actually have some defending to do

I think Pellegrini will save Komps and Demi for bigger games now on as we have seen that is his preferred pairing at the back ... so expect these two to play now then Komps/Demi in for Cardiff and then back to these two for West Ham second leg semi next mid-week. And Lescott to take captains arm band like he did in last game ... unless of course there is some transfer business being done and he's going out, then his non-inclusion will be telling ...

Chinners wrote:I'm hoping Aguero will make an appearence at some point in this match, possibly even start.

I am half expecting Aguero and Negredo to start given Pellegrini's preference for 2 up front but if he plays him off the bench expect Silva to play up in that role and we'll probably still see the 4-4-2 shape at home ...

Chance for Micah so we might well have a completely different back 5!

Milner,Garcia,Silva and Navas in the middle with two up top.If only Jovetic could get a run out.

I would go with AG7's team and I think MP will too. Maybe Lopes could feature and we will get an update at tomorrow's presser on Jovetic no doubt. The club will not give an update on Nasri until then according to the daily mail online

Need to win with no injuries and definitely no extra-time.

If Guidetti hasn't gone to Stoke by then, we might aswell play him as one of the two forwards as there is nothing to lose by him playing.

Is Roswell injured again? If not maybe he should start

AG7 wrote:Panti
Richards - Lescott - Nasti - Clichy
Navas - Ferdy - Garcia - Milner
Beast - Silva

Score Prediction:

Manchester City 4 - 0 Chicken Rovers

Won't be as easy as that but expecting Negredo to continue his goal scoring with a brace ... and then of course Aguero to come off the bench and match him for two of his own.

If they just happen to take a couple of asprin so could be available, I would play Rodders instead of Fernando & Jovetic in place of Silva. If only 1 available, must leave Merlin out even play Guidetti in front of him as with Nasri unavailable, where would we go if something happened to David

shortagain wrote:

AG7 wrote:Panti
Richards - Lescott - Nasti - Clichy
Navas - Ferdy - Garcia - Milner
Beast - Silva

Score Prediction:

Manchester City 4 - 0 Chicken Rovers

Won't be as easy as that but expecting Negredo to continue his goal scoring with a brace ... and then of course Aguero to come off the bench and match him for two of his own.

If they just happen to take a couple of asprin so could be available, I would play Rodders instead of Fernando & Jovetic in place of Silva. If only 1 available, must leave Merlin out even play Guidetti in front of him as with Nasri unavailable, where would we go if something happened to David

Don't want to see silva or negredo starting this one.

would love to see Micah, rodwell, and jojo all starting. If healthy, they should all be hungry and ready to make an impression.

Expect the game will be much different than the 1st leg. As long as we don't make any stupid mistakes or concede an early goal, 2-0 at half would be great. Love the FA Cup and think we should put out a team at least at 90% strength to ensure we advance. We have Cardiff at home on Sat, then can rest the whole team in a friendly vs west ham if needed (even though I want another 6-0 win), so I'm not worried about resting people vs Blackburn.

Any word on Jojo?

Tony P wrote:Any word on Jojo?

Mum's the word!

Tony P wrote:Any word on Jojo?

I can think of a few.

Time to rotate.

Pantilimon, Richards, Lescott, Nastasic, Clichy, Milner, Garcia, Navas and Lopes should all see the field here.

Not sure who gets the nod up top as both strikers prob need a rest but Id prob go with Edin to start as he seems to get better the more often he does play. Sergio will be a bench introduction here.

From Pellegrini's presser: Silva and Yaya are out of tomorrow's game but he hopes they're back for Cardiff. Aguero in squad for tomorrow. Nasri out at least 6/7 weeks.

Apparently Yaya has tweeted that he is injured and laid up 'for a few days'.

With injuries to Yaya, Silva and Nasri, not to mention Rodwell and Jovetic - it's time to get the wallet out!