Southampton travel away to Manchester to face the blue half of the city at the City of Manchester Stadium in the FA Cup 4th round.
The match had to be re-arranged for this Sunday to avoid a situation were Saints and Pompey fans ended up in Manchester at the same time with Portsmouth being drawn against Man United.
In the 3rd round both Saints and Man City had ties were they were tagged as favourites to advance. Southampton was drawn against league 2 team Torquay United and had no problems in seeing off the struggling side with two goals from Saints top scorer Gregorz Rasiak.
Manchester City had more trouble seeing of there opposition when they faced championship side Sheffield Wednesday, the game finished 1-1 at Hillsborough; City clinched a replay thanks to a Samaras penalty. The replay in Manchester saw city advance thanks to a 2-1 win, Darius Vassell got the wining goal in the 56th minute.
Vital Quotes:
Quotes to Follow Soon..
Man City Team News:
Home team news to follow soon..
Player to watch: Joey Barton
Always a threat going foward and a good passer of the ball, he’s Citys 2nd highest goal scorer with 5 goals so far this season.
Southampton Team News:
Inigo Idiakez is expected to miss out as is Nathan Dyer dispite making it through a reserve game unharmed. Balmadi, Svensson and Surman are all out injured still with long term injuries. Rudi Skacel could make a return.
Player to watch: Gregorz Rasiak
Scores bag fulls of goals away from home, without a doubt he is the saints main goal scoring threat.
Match Facts & Stats
History
The most famous recent match between the two sides was on the 11th of May 2003 when Saints played City at Maine Road, it was the last game played at the ground but Southampton spoiled the celebratory carnival atmosphere with a 1-0 win thanks to a Michael Svensson header. Overall recent fixtures between the sides have been pretty inconsistent, the last 6 times the sides faced off are listed below.
Last 6 Fixtures
2004/2005
Premiership – Man City 2 Saints 1 – 01.01.05
Premiership – Saints 0 Man City 0 – 02.10.04
2003/2004
Premiership – Man City 1 Saints 3 – 17.04.04
Premiership – Saints 0 Man City 2 – 01.11.03
2002/2003
Premiership – Man City 0 Saints 1 – 11.05.03
Premiership – Saints 2 Man City 0 – 05.10.02
Match Prediction:
Mikes Prediction – Manchester City 1 Southampton 1
Next Fixtures:
Southampton Vs Sheffield Wednesday (Wed 31st Jan 07) 7.45pm KO
