City make one change for Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final at home to Liverpool.

Marc Guéhi comes into Pep Guardiola’s starting eleven for the Etihad clash with the Anfield side.

From the side that began our Carabao Cup final win against Arsenal last time out, Nathan Ake reverts to the bench.

Otherwise, the boss sticks with the players who overcame the Gunners at Wembley to lift the first trophy of the season.

Josko Gvardiol, John Stones and Ruben Dias are all unavailable for selection through injury.

Teams

CITY XI: Trafford, Nunes, Khusanov, Guéhi, O’Reilly, Rodrigo, Bernardo (C), Semenyo, Cherki, Doku, Haaland.

Subs: Donnarumma, Reijnders, Ake, Marmoush, Kovacic, Nico, Ait-Nouri, Savinho, Foden.

LIVERPOOL:  Mamardashvili, Gomez, Van Dijk, Konate, Kerkez, Gravenberch, Szoboszlai, Jones, Salah, Wirtz, Ekitike

Subs: Woodman, Mac Allister, Chiesa, Gakpo, Robertson, Frimpong, Nyoni, Morrison, Ngumoha

Tactics

James Trafford retains his place in goal and the goalkeeper, who won his first England cap late last month, will be shielded by a back four of Matheus Nunes, Guéhi, Abdukodir Khusanov and Nico O’Reilly.

Rodri will be deployed as the holding midfielder with Bernardo Silva and Rayan Cherki also expected to be in the City engine room.

Erling Haaland will be City’s focal point up front with Antoine Semenyo and Jeremy Doku set to provide the width in the Blues forward line.

However, such is City’s attacking and tactical fluidity that formation could well be subject to change.

Up for the Cup

Under Pep Guardiola’s inspired stewardship City have established a quite remarkable record in the FA Cup.

The Blues have also established a joint English record in having reached the last seven semi-finals – a feat they currently share with Clapham Rovers.

But victory today would see City create another slice of domestic history by becoming the first team to reach eight successive semi-finals.

Pep also has chalked up the highest managerial percentage of seasons reaching the semi-finals – his tally currently standing at 88.9 as well as the highest percentage of FA Cup wins overall, 84.3.

The boss has also frequently referenced how much the FA Cup means to him so there is no doubt City will be more than pumped up for this afternoon’s eagerly awaited clash.

Home is where the Art is

City also have another potential notable FA Cup record in our sights ahead of kick-off this afternoon.

To date, we have won each of our last 17 home matches in the FA Cup, a remarkable record.

It’s a run that stretches back to February 2017, with our last home defeat coming against Middlesbrough back in January 2015.

Victory here would make this the outright longest home winning run by any side in the competition proper, surpassing Clapham Rovers’ record of 17 wins from December 1873 to February 1881.

Further evidence if any were needed of the Blues’ appetite for the FA Cup.

Match stats

  • This will be the seventh FA Cup tie between City and Liverpool; the Blues have progressed from the first two after replays in 1955-56 and 1972-73, but the Reds have since won each of the last four, most recently in the 2021-22 semi-final en route to winning what is their most recent FA Cup trophy.
  • City have already completed a Premier League double over Liverpool this season, and could win three successive meetings with the Anfield side in all competitions for the first time since March 1937 (4 in a row). Indeed, the last team to beat Liverpool three times in a single campaign were West Ham in 2015-16.
  • Liverpool have progressed from 17 of their last 19 FA Cup quarter-final ties, although they lost 4-3 to Manchester United in their most recent in 2023-24. Liverpool haven’t been eliminated from back-to-back FA Cup quarter-final appearances since 1967-68/1969-70 under Bill Shankly.
  • City have won each of our last 31 FA Cup matches outside of semi-finals and finals since losing to Wigan in the 2017-18 fifth round. They are looking to reach the semi-final for the eighth successive season – with our run of seven already a competition record.
  • Liverpool won 3-1 away at Wolves in the fifth round, but haven’t won two away games against Premier League opponents within a single FA Cup campaign since 2005-06, when they won at Portsmouth in the fourth round and Birmingham City in the quarter-final.
  • City’s Erling Haaland has scored in each of his last three home games against Liverpool in all competitions; the only Premier League players (since 1992-93) to score in 4+ consecutive home appearances against the Reds are Chris Sutton (4 from 1994 to 1996) and Sergio Agüero (5 from 2013 to 2017).
  • Mohamed Salah has scored in each of his last three FA Cup appearances, including in a quarter-final against Manchester United in 2023-24. The last player to score in four consecutive FA Cup appearances for Liverpool was Emile Heskey in 2000-01 – whose run included a goal against City in the fifth round.