By Ian King
Pleasure and silverware to struggle for
Plymouth have been struggling close to the foot of the Championship all season, and their type because the Liverpool match has been blended. They adopted it up with a 5-1 win towards Millwall the next Wednesday, however since then they’ve misplaced 2-0 at Blackburn and had two attracts towards fellow strugglers, Cardiff and Luton. They’re not backside of the Championship desk, however they’re nonetheless three factors from security.
Manchester Metropolis’s 1-0 win at Spurs on Wednesday night time continued their latest rollercoaster-like trajectory. They’ve won-lost-won-lost their final 4 Premier League matches, whereas elimination from the Champions League got here by the hands of Actual Madrid. That is their final probability of silverware, this season.
Distant historical past
SInce Plymouth have by no means performed top-flight soccer, their solely earlier conferences with Metropolis have come when their spells within the second tier coincided or in cup matches. They haven’t performed one another since 1989, when Metropolis gained 2-0 at Maine Highway. Plymouth’s final win towards Metropolis got here with a 3-2 win at House Park again in January 1988.
Key gamers
Since that is Metropolis’s final probability of successful something this season, we’d count on a powerful line-up for this match to construct on their latest win at Spurs. Erling Haaland is again from damage, and Pep Guardiola might nicely really feel {that a} sport towards reasonable opposition needs to be fertile floor for his fundamental striker to maintain his eye in. Goalkeeper Conor Hazard was the star of the present throughout Plymouth’s win towards Liverpool within the final sport with a string of wonderful saves, and Plymouth will want extra of the identical from him in the event that they’re to trigger one other shock on this spherical.
Workforce Information
Manchester Metropolis emerged from their midweek journey to North London untroubled by any recent accidents, so their absent checklist stays Rodri, Oscar Bobb, John Stones and Manuel Akanji. Plymouth’s most notable absentee is striker Ryan Hardie, who scored the successful aim from the penalty spot towards Liverpool however is now out till the center of March with a again damage. It had been hoped that the Plymouth captain Joe Edwards, who hasn’t performed because the finish of October, would possibly return for this match, however it now appears possible that he’ll simply miss out.
Prediction
Plymouth have been additional than this within the FA Cup earlier than, you already know. In 1984, whereas within the Third Division (!), they went all the way in which to the semi-finals earlier than shedding 1-0 to Watford at Villa Park. However soccer is a really completely different sport now to then, and Metropolis have precisely the popularity of being dream-wreckers to make a Premier League hat-trick really feel very distant certainly, though they have been knocked out of the Cup by League One Wigan Athletic in 2018. Metropolis’s up and down type makes predicting them troublesome, however they need to win this a minimum of 3-1, shouldn’t they?
(Cowl picture from IMAGO)
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