City make six changes for FA Cup clash | OneFootball

City have made six changes from our last Premier League game before the international break for our FA Cup sixth round clash with Bournemouth.

Ederson, Matheus Nunes, Mateo Kovacic, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden all come in for the sixth round tie at the Vitality Stadium, which kicks off at 16:30 (UK).

Stefan Ortega Moreno, Rico Lewis, Nico, Omar Marmoush and Jeremy Doku all move to the bench after starting our 2-2 with Brighton.

Savinho, who played for Brazil during the international break, is not in the squad for the game on the south coast.

TEAMS

BOURNEMOUTH XI: Kepa, Cook (c), Zabarnyi, Senesi, Soler, Adams, Christie, Kluivert, Semenyo, Brooks, Evanilson

Subs: Dennis, Scott, O. Dango, Smith, Jebbison, Hill, Silcott-Duberry, Akinmboni, Winterburn

CITY XI: Ederson, Nunes, Khusanov, Dias, Gvardiol, Gundogan, Kovacic, De Bruyne (C), Bernardo, Foden, Haaland

Subs: Ortega Moreno, Marmoush, Grealish, Doku, Nico, Reis, O'Reilly, Lewis, McAtee

HOW WE LINE-UP

Injuries have hit Pep Guardiola's options in defence and it's likely that Nunes will be at right-back with Abdukodir Khusanov and Ruben Dias in the centre beside Josko Gvardiol.

Kovacic will operate in the centre of midfield with Ilkay Gundogan and skipper De Bruyne in the centre of the pitch too.

Bernardo and Foden could take the wing spots but Guardiola as options to rotate his players into various positions.

Two certainties at least are that Ederson will be in goal and Erling Haaland leads the City attack.

WATCH: Watch: City's best FA Cup quarter-final moments

DOUBLE TROUBLE

The returns of De Bruyne and Foden have every reason to have the home fans worried.

Not only are they two of the best midfielders in the Premier League, but statistically, today is a good one for them.

De Bruyne has been involved in 13 goals in his last 10 appearances in the FA Cup - three goals and 10 assists) - both scoring and assisting in our 3-1 win against Plymouth in the fifth round.

Meanwhile, Foden has the most goals of any current City player against the Cherries with five in total, only behind Raheem Sterling's nine.

SIXTH SENSE

City have set such a high standards in recent years, it sometimes forgotten how remarkable our performances have been.

Domestically, Pep Guardiola’s side set a new record by becoming the men’s top-flight champions for the first time ever last season.

Along with a record-equalling four Carabao Cup competitions, City have also become the first team to make six successive semi-final appearances.

Victory today would extend that to seven, but there are not many more difficult places to visit with Andoni Iraola’s side challenging for the Champions League spots so reaching that target would be another impressive feat.

STATS AND FACTS

Bournemouth’s 2-1 win in November, having not won any of their first 21 meetings with the Citizens in all competitions.

This is the first ever FA Cup meeting between the two sides and is just the third time the Cherries have faced the reigning English champions in the competition.

This is just Bournemouth’s third appearance in the FA Cup quarter-finals, losing 2-1 against Manchester United in 1956/57 and 3-0 against Southampton in 2020/21.

City have won our last seven FA Cup quarter-final ties, with these coming in the last eight campaigns (exception being 2017/18). Our run of reaching the semi-final in six consecutive campaigns is already a record in the competition.

Bournemouth have progressed from their last two FA Cup ties against top-flight opponents (against Everton and Wolves in this season’s fourth and fifth rounds), as many as they had in their previous 17 such ties.

City have won our last 14 away games in the FA Cup, scoring 40 goals and conceding 10. Our last defeat on the road came at Wigan in February 2018, with our last four losses in the competition coming at Wembley.

Antoine Semenyo has had 14 shots in the FA Cup this season, with half of these coming in Bournemouth’s fifth round tie against Wolves. Only Luke Molyneux (19) has had more shots in the competition proper this term.