Manchester City vs Salford City (FA Cup Fourth Round): Match Preview, Team News, Head to Head, How to Watch | OneFootball

Manchester City return to action at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday afternoon with Salford City standing in their way as they look to continue their journey towards a fourth successive FA Cup final.

Pep Guardiola’s side ran out 3-0 home victors on Wednesday night as they defeated Marco Silva’s Fulham and closed the gap on Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal to four points following the league leaders’ draw against Brentford the following evening.

The Sky Blues dominated the majority of the opening exchanges, with their intense, relentless pressing proving too much to handle for the Cottagers, and with just 24 minutes gone, Antoine Semenyo broke the deadlock.

An inviting cross from Matheus Nunes was not dealt with effectively, and the visitors paid the price for that as the Ghanaian produced a poacher’s finish from close range to get the home side up and running.

With half an hour on the clock, a rapid counter-attack from Guardiola’s men saw City double their lead as a neat pass inside from Antoine Semenyo allowed Nico O’Reilly to confidently lift the ball over the helpless Bernd Leno, earning the No.33 his second league goal of the season.

The result was put beyond all reasonable doubt with just six minutes until the interval, as an intelligent ball from Phil Foden found the feet of Erling Haaland on the edge of the 18-yard box, and the Norwegian unleashed an inch-perfect strike which found the bottom corner.

By and large, it was a perfect half from Manchester City as they raced into a 3-0 lead in the first 45 – the only blemish being Erling Haaland’s withdrawal at the break due to a knock.

The home side remained resolute, and thanks to a collectively strong defensive display from the likes of Marc Guehi, Gianluigi Donnarumma and the returning Ruben Dias, Guardiola’s side maintained their clean sheet and secured a huge three points.

With fixture congestion showing no sign of slowing down for Manchester City, focus now shifts to cup football as League Two side Salford City await the seven-time FA Cup champions at the Etihad Stadium.

Coming into the game, Salford boast a run of rather positive form with just two losses in their last 13 across competitions. However, the Ammies did face defeat last time out, as they lost 1-0 at Accrington Stanley.

Here’s everything you need to know about this intriguing FA Cup face-off between Manchester City and Salford City!

Match Details

Sky Bet League Two outfit Salford City travel to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday 14 February, with kick-off scheduled for 15:00 (UK).

Match Officials

The Football Association has confirmed that Matthew Donohue, who has predominantly officiated in the Championship so far this season, will be the man in the middle for Saturday’s fixture.

Check out the full list of match officials below!

Team News

For the Blues, Pep Guardiola confirmed Erling Haaland felt “niggles” in the first half against Fulham, and a decision on his availability would be made in the hours preceding the contest.

Croatian duo Josko Gvardiol and Mateo Kovacic are absent as the No.24 will continue his long journey back to fitness following an unfortunate tibial fracture against Chelsea, whilst the latter is still recovering from Achilles surgery in Autumn.

Elsewhere, attacking options Jeremy Doku and Savinho both remained sidelined as they recover from their respective injury issues, while John Stones availability and ability to start or feature for a pre-determined amount of minutes would be decided on ahead of the clash.

For Karl Robinson’s Salford City side, Jay Bird and Tom Edwards both remain out for the long-term.

Ade Oluwo, Michael Rose and Kadeem Harris are all making progress towards a return to full fitness, while Haji Mnoga and Brandon Cooper will be assessed ahead of the club’s visit to the Etihad Stadium.

Press Conference Quotes

“He [Erling Haaland] is not 100 per cent but we’ll see today how he feels. It’s not a big issue, the doctor said to me, but he had some disturbances during the game [vs Fulham] and that’s why in the second-half he didn’t play. We’ll see how is his evolution. (Feature vs Salford?) “We will decide today.”

“We will see tomorrow if he [John Stones] plays or how many minutes he plays.”

“This long week I think we need because we are so, so exhausted mentally, physically, for this incredible amount of games in many, many months, with few, few days off. We can have a little break after the game [vs Salford].”

“He [Bernardo Silva] can talk, too [in addition to leading by example]! It’s the best leadership, right? When you lead by example. And anyone in the locker room and dressing room cannot deny that he has that.”

Head-to-Head

The one and only previous competitive meeting between Manchester City and Salford City occurred in this competition last campaign.

The former handed their opponents a humiliating 8-0 defeat courtesy of goals from Divin Mubama, Nico O’Reilly and Jack Grealish, as well as a brace from Jeremy Doku and a hat-trick for James McAtee.

Statistics

While Manchester City are unbeaten in their last six matches across all competitions (W5 D1), Salford have suffered only two defeats in their last 13 games over the last 10 weeks (W9 D2), though both losses have come in their last three league outings.

Salford will compete in the fourth round of the FA Cup for the first time in their history after beating Swindon 3-2 almost three weeks ago. The last time a team from the fourth division or lower eliminated a side in the top three of the top tier was back in February 1971 when Colchester beat league leaders Leeds in the fifth round.

Salford have lost all of their previous three competitive encounters with Premier League clubs by an aggregate score of 15-0, including the aforementioned 8-0 defeat at the Etihad last season (also losing 3-0 at Everton in 2020-21 and 4-0 at home to Burnley in 2023-24 in the EFL Cup).

Seven-time winners of the FA Cup, Man City have reached at least the semi-final stage of the competition in eight of the last nine seasons under Guardiola, but they have only triumphed on two occasions, in 2018-19 and 2022-23, while they have lost the last two finals to rivals Man United and Crystal Palace. One of the standout results from last month’s third-round ties in the FA Cup was Man City’s 10-1 victory over League One side Exeter City at the Etihad Stadium. The Citizens hit double figures for the first time in nearly four decades and became the first team to net 10+ goals in the FA Cup since Tottenham defeated Crewe Alexandra 13-2 back in February 1960.

Manchester City have won their last 20 games in the competition against teams from outside the Premier League, scoring 82 goals in the process. At home, they have won their last 11 of these games by an impressive aggregate score of 59-5.

How To Watch

The game has not been selected for broadcast and so will not be available to watch live in the UK. Radio coverage will be available on BBC Radio Manchester from 15:00 GMT.

For those in the United States, however, the game will be available to stream on FuboTV and the ESPN app, with action getting underway from 10:00 EST.

Check out the full global TV listings for this match HERE!

City Xtra will have full live coverage available on our X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram channels throughout matchday, with content also provided on cityxtra.co.uk!