Predicted Starting Line-Up: Crystal Palace vs Manchester City (FA Cup Final) | OneFootball

Manchester City embark on their third consecutive FA Cup Final this weekend as they take on Crystal Palace at Wembley Stadium.

Pep Guardiola and Manchester City fans will be hoping for a much livelier performance than last time out as an already-relegated Southampton outfit earned a hard-fought 0-0 draw at home to a visiting Etihad squad on the south coast in the Premier League.

That result did not have too much of a detrimental impact on City’s ambitions of a top-five finish and UEFA Champions League qualification, but was hardly the sort of inspiring outing to give plenty of hope in the lead up to a Cup Final.

Crystal Palace will no doubt hand Manchester City a much sterner test this weekend, having already taken two points of Guardiola’s side at Selhurst Park earlier this season, and stole a 0-2 lead before losing 5-2 at the Etihad Stadium this year.

Thankfully for the Manchester City boss, his options for the matchday squad are looking stronger than ever, with only John Stones sidelined as a direct result of a long-standing injury problem that he is yet to return to training ground duties from.

Ahead of Manchester City’s upcoming FA Cup Final clash against Crystal Palace, here is how we predict Pep Guardiola will line-up his side at Wembley Stadium on Saturday afternoon!

Predicted XI

Between the posts, we believe it will be standard procedure for Stefan Ortega Moreno in cup competitions for Manchester City as he retains the spot he has held for much of the season right through to the final stage of the FA Cup.

In at right-back, we think Matheus Nunes will be granted access to the keys largely due to his pace in transition against a speedy and fluid Crystal Palace front-line that will likely be given license to run-free when they can.

In the centre of defence, and despite the performances of a certain Croatian and Englishman recently, we think Manuel Akanji will hold down his place once more after the outing at Southampton, standing alongside Ruben Dias in the partnership.

That unfortunately means we can see Nico O’Reilly somewhat unfairly being left out having carried Manchester City to this point in the competition in many ways, but still seeing Player of the Season candidate Josko Gvardiol starting.

Alternating between the base of midfield and transitioning Manchester City from defence into attacking situations, we think Pep Guardiola will opt for the semi-final duo of Mateo Kovacic and Bernardo Silva.

On the same theme of the last-four clash against Nottingham Forest, we also believe Rico Lewis could be rewarded for his impressive showing in the last round with a Final start against an opposition he simply loves scoring against.

That moves us on to the front-three, and with the aim of trying to get balls into the box and handing further support for the obvious man leading the line, we think Phil Foden could once again be deployed.

Moving on to the lone-striker role: Erling Haaland. Nothing more needs to be said.

And completing our line-up by heading out onto the left of a traditional front-three, we think Omar Marmoush could be handed a starting opportunity following a bright cameo against Southampton in which he struck the crossbar in what was City’s best effort of the game.

Starting XI: Ortega Moreno; Nunes, Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol; Kovacic, Bernardo, Lewis; Foden, Haaland, Marmoush.

Substitutes: Ederson, Khusanov, O’Reilly, Nico, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Savinho, Doku, Grealish.