Man City vs Plymouth prediction: Pilgrims cup journey to end at Etihad | OneFootball

Man City vs Plymouth betting tips

Manchester City’s final hope of winning silverware this season rests on the FA Cup and on Saturday they face Championship strugglers Plymouth for a place in the quarter-finals (5:45pm, ITV4).

A trip to the Etihad was the reward for Plymouth’s fourth-round victory over Premier League leaders Liverpool when Ryan Hardie scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot.

That was their second win over Premier League opposition after securing a 1-0 win at Brentford in the third round, with now-departed Morgan Whittaker scoring the only goal of the game. This turned out to be his final goal for the club before securing a £6m move to Middlesbrough.

The Pilgrims are now third from bottom in the Championship table and just three points from safety after securing 10 points since the arrival of new boss Miron Muslic, who replaced Wayne Rooney in January.

City have had a very different run in this competition so far with an 8-0 win over League Two side Salford, before they eventually managed to beat League One’s Leyton Orient 2-1 after trailing for over 40 minutes.

They put their recent defeats to Real Madrid, which ended their Champions League campaign, and their 2-0 home defeat to Liverpool behind them with a 1-0 win over Tottenham on Wednesday.

Man City vs Plymouth betting preview: There’s only one winner at the Etihad

While we know Plymouth will give it a go, surely lightning can’t strike three times in a season?

Well, it has before as they are looking to become the first team from outside the top flight to eliminate Premier League opposition in three consecutive rounds since Wigan Athletic in 2017-18.

The Latics, who were then in League One, beat Manchester City 1-0 in the fifth round after previously beating Bournemouth and West Ham.

City will have learnt a lot from their fourth-round match. They struggled for large periods against Orient and needed second-half substitute Kevin De Bruyne to rescue them with the winning goal just seven minutes after coming on.

With no silverware left to play for, we expect a different starting line-up for City than we saw that afternoon and they don’t have another fixture for seven days so there is no need to rest players.

Football betting sites aren’t giving the visitors a chance and are offering 33/1 on a Plymouth win, 1/12 on a City win and 14/1 on the scores being level after 90 minutes.

City have won the last five matches between the two sides in all competitions, but this is the first meeting since February 1989 in the old Second Division when City ran out 2-0 winners.

The sides met four times that season in the league and League Cup with City winning all four by an aggregate score of 10-3. They previously met in the FA Cup in 1988, and City won 3-1 at Maine Road.

If Pep Guardiola names a side similar to the one that beat Spurs, then it should be an easy afternoon for City. The problems may arise if he leaves some of his big names out.

Erling Haaland returned after injury to score the only goal on Wednesday and Plymouth might be hoping he doesn’t make the starting XI with betting sites offering just 6/1 on him to score a hat-trick.

To get any decent odds on the game, you have to be creative in your thinking but with Plymouth having scored in six of their last seven games and City having conceded in six of their last eight it’s worth looking at the scoring markets.

Since his debut in the competition in January 2016, no player has been involved in more FA Cup goals, from the first round onwards than City’s Kevin De Bruyne.

He has nine goals and 17 assists in 31 appearances, and he netted the winner in the last round.

The 33-year-old has scored just three goals in 27 appearances so far which is a far cry from his previous returns at City, where he has scored 105 goals in 409 games.

Betting apps are offering 8/1 on him scoring first or last or 41/20 to score at any time, which is a great option in case he is named on the bench again.

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