Peterborough vs Man City – FA Cup: TV channel, live stream, team news & prediction
Manchester City continue their FA Cup campaign on Tuesday night, aiming to reach the quarter-final stage as they travel to Championship side Peterborough.
Pep Guardiola’s team are fresh from victory at Everton in the Premier League, which puts them six points clear at the summit having played one more than Liverpool. City are, however, enduring a slight rough patch when compared with the flow of the season as a whole.
In league matters, the leaders have recently fallen to a 3-2 defeat to Tottenham as well as being held to a 1-1 draw by Southampton within their previous five outings. When factoring in all competitions, though, those are the only matches Guardiola’s side has failed to win since early December – also dominating FA Cup and Champions League fixtures in that time.
They face a Peterborough team that has conversely won just one league game since late October. With relegation back to League One looking all the more certain as time passes (they’re rooted to the bottom of the Championship), Posh’s FA Cup campaign, in which they have beaten Bristol Rovers and QPR to get this far, has offered a silver lining to a dark gloomy cloud.
Here’s 90min’s preview of this clash.
When is kick off? Tuesday 1 March, 19:15 (GMT)
Where is the match being played? Weston Homes Stadium
TV channel/live stream? ITV1/ITV Hub (UK), ESPN+ (US)
Highlights? Emirates FA Cup YouTube, ITV Sport YouTube
Referee? Andrew Madley
Grant McCann will once again have to contend with a selection of absentees for this one.
The Peterborough boss will be without Nathan Thompson and Dan Butler through injury, while City’s visit will come just too soon for Jack Taylor’s return to action.
Elsewhere, central defender Mark Beevers might be afforded a spot on the bench, although a start is unlikely as he continues his journey back to full fitness.
Guardiola’s squad is looking very healthy at the moment, particularly after returns to the matchday squad for both Gabriel Jesus and Jack Grealish for the visitors‘ win at Goodison Park last time out.
They could be given starting roles for Tuesday night’s clash, with some rotation expected ahead of next weekend’s Manchester Derby.
With the only presumed absentees being Cole Palmer and Zack Steffen, Guardiola will likely field a quality-packed, experienced-stacked side having done so in their two previous fixtures in the competition.
You won’t be surprised to hear that meetings between these two clubs haven’t come very often over the years. In fact, they’ve met just once before.
That encounter came all the way back on Valentine’s Day in 1981, when Manchester City came away from Peterborough with a 1-0 in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
It’s safe to assume history will be repeating itself this Tuesday – although expect more than one goal from the away side this time around.
If you’re desperate for a giant-killing, City just isn’t the team for you.
The Cityzens have won each of their previous 11 FA Cup matches against opposition from a lower division, including 4-1 thrashings of both Swindon and Fulham this campaign alone, and scoring 40 in the process across all 11 games.
And, given the torrid form that Posh find themselves in at the moment, that trend doesn’t look like ending any time soon.