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Pep Guardiola: “We are expecting a difficult game”
“No, they are not unknown,” said Manchester City’s manager upon being asked if he knew much about Plymouth Argyle in his pre-match presser. “When you can beat the best team in the country this season Liverpool - and also Brentford - they are not unknown.
“And not just Liverpool. I saw [some of their] other games. They defend aggressively with their wingbacks. The transition they do with attacking midfielders inside, who link really well. With the strikers in Championship, the set pieces are the main thing, and the Premier League teams learn from this.
“The amount of free-kicks and corners they produce are not like the Premier League. They are solid. Since the manager took over, the results are there. We are expecting a difficult game. We play at home, and that is an advantage, the Orient game was so tough.
“We played many times in the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup against lower league teams and always they are tricky. What these teams do, they do really well. And if you are not ready you are in trouble. We have a chance to arrive in the last eight of the FA Cup again and we want to do it.”
Miron Muslic: “It’s a big stage to represent Argyle”
“It’s Manchester City, it’s away, the team which has dominated the Premier League for the last seven or eight years so it truly feels like something very, very big,” said Plymouth’s manager in his pre-match press conference.
“We are going to try to enjoy this. We said it also before Liverpool, it’s a big stage to represent Argyle best possible, to represent us and we see this as a massive opportunity to do exactly the same.
“It’s a big game for us as staff, it’s a big game for the players, but it’s a big game also for us as an organisation, and a wonderful one I think especially for the Green Army. This is just the crème de la crème of English football. The highest mountain to climb but it’s just a beautiful adventure and we are very much looking forward to challenge them.”
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Conor Hazard: "We don't want to let anyone down"
With 7,800 Plymouth fans expected to make the journey to the Etihad for a tie that must be decided tonight following the scrapping of FA Cup replays, their team’s Northern Irish goalkeeper Conor Hazard has stressed the importance of his side doing their best in the face of extremely daunting opposition and will be well prepared for a penalty shootout should the outcome be determined by spot-kicks.
“You’ve got to kind of have an idea what you’re going to be coming up against, what’s their preferred side and what to do,” he said. “We’ll try to keep the game going as long as possible and there’s every chance a game like this could go to penalties. We’ll definitely do some preparation on that.
“We’ve got 8,000 people going up there to support us so we don’t want to let anyone down. We did such a good job against Liverpool and hopefully we can do the same at the Etihad. We’re all really up for it. We know the task ahead and what we need to do to try and get a result there. That’s our aim.”
Technology: As the Guardian revealed in a February exclusive, semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) is beiong trialled in the FA Cup fifth round with a view to it being introduced in the Premier League before the end of the season. Matt Hughes reveals all …
Those teams: Pep Guardiola changes the entire side that beat Tottenham Hotspur during the week, with Stefan Ortega starting in goal and fringe players such as January signing Vitor Reis, teenage left-back Nico O’Reilly, James McAtee and Jack Grealish all being handed starts.
Miron Muslic makes six changes to the Plymouth side that drew with Cardiff City in the Championship last weekend. Nikola Katic, who famously lost a tooth in the white-hot furnace of combat during Plymouth’s victory over Liverpool in the last round, captains the side.
Manchester City v Plymouth Argyle line-ups
Manchester City: Ortega, Lewis, Vitor Reis, Ake, O’Reilly, Gundogan, Silva, McAtee, De Bruyne, Grealish, Foden.
Subs: Ederson, Dias, Marmoush, Haaland, Doku, Gonzalez, Gvardiol, Savio, Matheus Luiz.
Plymouth Argyle: Hazard, Taloverov, Pleguezuelo, Katic, Mumba, Gyabi, Boateng, Ogbeta, Sorinola, Wright, Bundu.
Subs: Grimshaw, Houghton, Szucs, Edwards, Puchacz, Al Hajj, Baidoo, Roberts, Palsson.
Maxi Talovierov: "It comes from my soul"
Interview: Already a cult hero at Home Park despite having been at the club for just one month, the Ukrainian defender Maksym “Maxi” Talovierov, has not seen his parents for three-and-a-half years due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but is making the most of life in Plymouth despite the traumas being endured by his friends and family back home. Words: Ben Fisher.
Today’s match officials
Referee: Craig Pawson
Assistant referees: Scott Ledger and Craig Taylor
Fourth official: Darren Bond
VAR: Neil Davies
Early team news
John Stones and Manuel Akanji remain sidelined for the hosts, while Oscar Bobb is also unavailable having been out with a fractured leg since the Community Shield but is fast approaching a return to full fitness. Jack Grealish is also a doubt for today’s game.
Plymouth are without Ryan Hardie, who scored the all-important goal in their win over Liverpool. The 27-year-old centre-forward is out with a back injury and will join his fellow striker Muhamed Tijani (hamstring) in a watching brief, which means on-loan striker Michael Obafemi could get a rare start for the visitors. Plymouth defenders Brendan Galloway and Joe Edwards are also out.
FA Cup fifth round: Man City v Plymouth Argyle
There’s a place in the quarter-finals up for grabs at the Etihad, where Manchester City host the lowest ranked team left in this season’s competition. Rock bottom of the Championship with Miron Muslic about to take over from Wayne Rooney as their manager when they beat Brentford in the third round, Plymouth have since hauled themselves to within three points of safety.
They also made headlines by knocking Liverpool out of the tournament after taking full advantage of Arne Slot’s gamble to give most of his first team players the weekend off and field a largely experimental young side at Home Park in the fourth round.
Their hosts today are unlikely to be as charitable, with outright victory in the FA Cup now Manchester City’s only chance of winning a trophy in what has, for them, been a hugely underwhelming season of underachievement. Having battered Salford City in the third round, Pep Guardiola’s side had to come from behind to see off Leyton Orient from League One next time out. Kick-off at the Etihad Stadium is at 5.45pm (GMT) but we’ll have plenty of team news and build-up in the meantime.
