FA Cup | Fifth Round

Mar 1, 2025 at 5.45pm UK

Etihad Stadium

Man City vs Plymouth

Match preview

After back-to-back defeats at the hands of Real Madrid and Liverpool, Man City bounced back to winning ways to claim three valuable Premier League points with a narrow 1-0 victory at Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday night.

Erling Haaland marked his return from injury with a 12th-minute winner, his 20th Premier League goal of the season, to help the Citizens move back into the top four, albeit just a point behind fifth-placed Chelsea and five ahead of 10th-placed Aston Villa with 11 games remaining.

Pep Guardiola's side are now prioritising a top-four finish in what has been a tumultuous season for Man City, who after winning four successive Premier League titles now sit a whopping 20 points behind champions Liverpool. However, they are still in with a chance of ending the season on a high with silverware, as City are bookmakers' favourites to lift the FA Cup.

Indeed, with the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs all out of the running, Man City are the favourites to lift an eighth FA Cup this season. The Citizens have reached at least the semi-final stage of the competition in seven of the last eight seasons under Guardiola prior to the current campaign, but have only triumphed twice, in 2018-19 and 2022-23.

Last season's losing finalists are preparing for only their second FA Cup meeting with Plymouth, having beaten them 3-1 at Maine Road in the fifth round in 1988. City have already beaten two lower league sides to reach the fifth round this season, thrashing League Two Salford City 8-0 in the third round before coming from behind to beat League One Leyton Orient 2-1 in the fourth round.

Less than 24 hours after being appointed Plymouth's first foreign head coach, Miron Muslic watched from the stands as the Pilgrims stunned Brentford with a 1-0 away win in the FA Cup third round last month. However, he was in the dugout when Plymouth produced the shock of the fourth round by knocking out Premier League leaders Liverpool, winning again 1-0 three weeks ago.

Ryan Hardie's second-half penalty was enough as Plymouth overcame a much-changed Reds side in front of an enthusiastic Home Park crowd to reach the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time in 18 years.

Since beating Liverpool, Plymouth have taken five points from their last four Championship games to boost their survival hopes. A 5-1 thrashing of Millwall at home followed a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Blackburn Rovers, but the Pilgrims have responded with back-to-back 1-1 draws against fellow relegation-threatened sides Luton Town and Cardiff City.

Last weekend, Cardiff threatened to spoil Muslic's recent optimism after Yousef Salekh's early goal, but Plymouth fought back to deny the 10-man Bluebirds, with Muhamed Tijani's second-half equaliser moving the Pilgrims to within three points of safety.

Before travelling to Hull City in the next round of the Championship, Plymouth will be looking for another major FA Cup upset at Man City, a team they have lost to in eight of their last nine meetings in all competitions - the exception being a 3-2 home win in the second tier in January 1988.

Recent Performance

Manchester City FA Cup form:WW

Manchester City form (all competitions):WLWLLW

Plymouth Argyle FA Cup form:WW

Plymouth Argyle form (all competitions):WWWLDD

Team News

Manchester City will be without Rodri (ACL), Manuel Akanji (hamstring) and John Stones (thigh) through injury, while Oscar Bobb is close to full fitness but this weekend's game will come too soon for the striker.

Guardiola is expected to make a number of changes to the City side that beat Spurs in midweek, with Stefan Ortega, Rico Lewis, Vitor Reis, Nathan Ake, James McAtee and Jack Grealish among those lobbying for a recall.

Since making his FA Cup debut in January 2016, no player has been involved in more goals in the competition (first round onwards) than Kevin De Bruyne (26 - nine goals, 17 assists). The Belgian scored the winner at Leyton Orient in the last round and is in contention to start in midfield on Saturday.

Another name to watch out for is new signing Claudio Echeverri, a 19-year-old attacking midfielder who has now arrived in Manchester and could be in contention for a debut after starring at the South American U-20 Championship, where he captained Argentina to a runners-up finish.

As for Plymouth, Muhamed Tijani will be sidelined for a few weeks with a hamstring injury and joins fourth-round heroes Ryan Hardie (back), Brendan Galloway (hip) and Joe Edwards (hamstring) in the treatment room.

Tijani and Hardie's absences leave Plymouth light in attack; Mustapha Bundu has been operating at number nine in recent games and could lead the line again, while on-loan Burnley striker Michael Obafemi is the only natural centre-forward in Muslic's squad.

Maksym Talovierov, Nikola Katic and Julio Pleguezuelo could line up in a three-man defence as they did against Liverpool, with Matthew Sorinola and Tymoteusz Puchacz at full-back, while ex-Man City youngster Darko Gyabi could be recalled in midfield.

Possible starting lineup

Manchester City possible starting lineup:

Ortega; Lewis, Reis, Ake, O'Reilly; Gundogan, De Bruyne; Doku, Foden, Grealish; Marmoush

Plymouth Argyle possible starting lineup:

Hazard; Talovierov, Katic, Pleguezuelo; Sorinola, Randell, Gyabi, Puchacz; Wright, Al Hajj; Bundu