16:35
The teams
Cheltenham Town: Griffiths, Raglan, Tozer, Boyle, Blair, Freestone, Thomas, Clements, Azaz, Lloyd, May.
Subs: Flinders, Harris, Long, Bowry, Addai, Ebanks, Williams.
Manchester City: Steffen, Garcia, Harwood-Bellis, Laporte, Mendy, Fernandinho, Doyle, Mahrez, Torres, Foden, Jesus.
Subs: Ederson, Dias, Sterling, Gundogan, Zinchenko, Rodrigo, Bernardo, Cancelo, Bernabe.
11:57
Preamble
The magic of the FA Cup, distilled into its purest tincture, right here! Fourth-tier Cheltenham Town are rewarded for edging past Mansfield Town in the last round with a home tie against one of the best teams in the world: Manchester City.
It’s a David-Goliath scene all right. Pep Guardiola’s side have won their last nine matches straight, while Cheltenham have only won one of their last nine, that aforementioned win over Mansfield, and they needed extra time to achieve that. There are 82 places between these sides in the football pyramid. And even if Pep does the Big Rotate, his squad is so deep it’s difficult to see a way for Michael Duff’s men to pull off a seismic shock.
But it’s that cup magic again, and in this grand old tournament, you just never know. Set pieces, maybe. Or a determined rearguard action, the Robins somehow holding out for extra time and the sort-of-lottery of penalties. We have a good idea how this is going to pan out, but stranger things have happened in the cup. And after what happened a couple of years ago at Wigan, nobody at City will be taking Cheltenham lightly. Kick off is at 5.30pm. Pour me a shot of that magic tincture! It’s on!
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