Manchester City v Plymouth Tips: 11/5 to oppose cards at The Etihad | OneFootball

English FA Cup

Pep Guardiola was pleased with Man City's midweek performance

Manchester City welcome Plymouth to The Etihad on Saturday evening for a fifth round FA Cup tie with Betfair writer Mark O'Haire looking to oppose cards.

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Manchester City v PlymouthSaturday March 1, 17:45Live on ITV4

Haaland on-hand for Man City

Erling Haaland scored on his return to action as Manchester City held on for victory against Tottenham to improve their hopes of a top-four Premier League finish in midweek. City started strongly and went ahead in the 12th minute and had further opportunities to increase their advantage before the interval in an eye-catching opening 45 minutes.

After controlling the first half, the Citizens faded after the break, with Ederson called into action. But their resilience in the second half was commendable with 20-year-old centre-back Abdukodir Khusanov producing his best performance since arriving at the club, whilst Nico Gonzalez excelled both in and out of possession for Pep Guardiola's group.

Speaking post-match, Guardiola said the victory was "really important". He added, "Really pleased for the victory and the way we played in the first half. Second half was more open because we didn't close the game. It should have been 3-0 or 4-0 in the first half, but we couldn't do it. But I'm really pleased for the victory and the result we got."

Plymouth secure important point

Plymouth came from behind to prevent 10-man Cardiff landing a significant blow in the Championship relegation fight last week. Trailing for much of the match, Argyle were indebted to Muhamed Tijani's first goal in English football to secure a share of the spoils as the Pilgrims second-half pressure continued their positivity under new boss Miron Muslic.

The game swung when visiting centre-back Dimitrios Goutas was sent off eight minutes into the second-half for bringing down substitute Bali Mumba on the edge of the area. Muslic's men have now suffered a solitary defeat in seven - a run that includes their famous FA Cup success over Liverpool - yet the Plymouth boss is eager to improve standards further.

After the Cardiff stalemate, Muslic said: "Mixed emotions and mixed feelings because we threw away the first 45 minutes - in our situation we can't throw away four-and-a-half seconds. We were sloppy and the goal was an example of our first-half. But how we got out of it was very positive and there are lots of learnings we can take going forward."

Citizens expected to win easy

Man City have won each of the last five meetings with Plymouth, though this is the first clash between the pair since 1989. The Citizens have won each of their last 18 FA Cup games against sides from a lower division by an aggregate score of 69-9 since 2018. However, Plymouth have already knocked out two Premier League sides this season.

Man City [1.09] are understandably short here despite Pep Guardiola potentially making sweeping changes to his side following Wednesday night's success. The Citizens have been made -2.5 & -3.0 favourites on the Asian Handicap line, and whilst a cushy success looks most likely, I'm happy to leave last season's finalists alone considering their recent travails.

Plymouth 30.00 are looking to become the first team from outside the top-flight to eliminate Premier League opposition in three consecutive rounds since Wigan in 2017-18. Argyle have undoubtedly improved under Miron Muslic, yet have tended to really toil on their travels this term, posting W1-D5-L13 across all competitions, scoring only seven goals.

Oppose cards at The Etihad

The FA Cup is averaging just 2.60 cards per-game from the third round stage and traditionally lobsided betting heats - such as Saturday's showdown - have tended to deliver low card counts. Under 2.5 Cards has been chalked up at 8/11 quotes here but there's precedence to suggest a play on Under 1.5 Cards at 11/5 could be well worth a poke.

Man City's most recent cup contests with lower-league opposition at The Etihad have produced card hauls of 2-0-2-1-1-1-1, whilst Plymouth's trip to Brentford earlier in the competition returned zero cautions. Argyle's previous two away days against top-flight opposition have also paid-out in the Under 1.5 Cards market, highlighting the appeal.

Craig Pawson oversees the action - he's avergaing 2.98 cards across 48 previous FA Cup clashes but last season flashed totals of 1-2-6 - the latter coming understandably in a big Tyne-Wear derby date. The official failed to produce a single booking in Liverpool's 4-0 thrashing of Spurs in the EFL Cup semi-final second leg and could easily repeat the feat here.

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Back Under 1.5 Cards @ 11/5