Overview
After three consecutive victories against Newcastle in just the past few weeks, Manchester City will continue to face the "Magpies" in the match of the 5th round of the FA Cup. The winning team will win a ticket to the quarterfinals.
Man City entered this match after dropping important points in the Premier League title race, when they were held to a 2-2 draw by Nottingham Forest at home in the middle of the week.
That result ended the 7-match winning streak at Etihad, even though Pep Guardiola's team completely controlled the game with 774 passes - the most in a Premier League match this season - along with 21 shots and a ball possession rate of nearly 70%.
Currently, Man City is 7 points behind Arsenal in the standings, although there is still one unmatched match. According to Opta's supercomputer, their chance of defending the championship is only 7.16%.
However, the Manchester team's ambition to win titles is still intact as they continue to compete in many arenas. After eliminating Newcastle to enter the Carabao Cup final, Man City is also preparing to face Real Madrid in the Champions League round of 16.
This weekend, they will return to St James' Park - where they once beat Newcastle 2-0 in the Carabao Cup semi-finals - with the goal of taking another step on the FA Cup conquest journey.
Since then, Newcastle have continued to receive two more defeats against Man City, most recently the 1-2 defeat at Etihad in the Premier League on February 21.
However, coach Eddie Howe's team just created a big morale boost when defeating Manchester United 2-1 despite having to play with 10 men in the second half.
Newcastle currently has 39 points and still hopes to compete for a European cup spot when they are 5 points behind seventh place, in the context that there are only 9 rounds left in the season.
Before returning to the Premier League, they will go through 2 important knockout matches. After the confrontation with Man City in the FA Cup, Newcastle will host Barcelona in the Champions League round of 16.
Although they have passed the 5th round of the FA Cup nine of their last ten times, Newcastle stopped at this stage last season when they lost to Brighton 1-2.
Meanwhile, Man City still maintains an impressive record in the oldest tournament in England. They have won 18 of their last 20 matches in the FA Cup, losing only 2 consecutive finals to Man United and Crystal Palace.
From round three to round five, The Citizens have won 23 consecutive matches with a total score of 89-11 since the 0-1 defeat to Wigan in 2018. This season, Man City's journey is quite favorable as they surpassed lower-tier teams such as Exeter and Salford, and even were "gifted" 3 own goals - a record for a Premier League team in an FA Cup campaign.
In attack, Antoine Semenyo is impressing when contributing to 9 goals (7 goals, 2 assists) since joining the club. Only Viktor Gyokeres of Arsenal directly participated in more goals in the same period.
On Newcastle's side, Harvey Barnes is a notable name when he has participated in 5 goals in 7 FA Cup matches at home (4 goals, 1 assist). This winger also leads the team in the number of shots and chances created in this season's tournament.
Head-to-head record
This will be the 11th time Newcastle and Man City have faced each other in the FA Cup. In the last two encounters in this tournament - quarter-finals in 2020 and 2024 - Man City have both won, although before that they only overcame Newcastle in two of the first eight encounters in this arena.
In all competitions this season, the two teams have faced each other four times. Man City has won three of those four encounters after losing in their first encounter.
Score prediction: Newcastle 1-2 Man City
The match between Newcastle and Man City takes place at 3:00 AM on March 8th (Vietnam time).
