Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
It’s F.A. Cup Quarter Final Weekend as the first of the four games takes place at The Riverside Stadium as Middlesbrough play host to Manchester City. It’s two Northern teams but with two Spanish managers and two men on either side of the El Clasico divide.
That’s because former Real Madrid defender Aitor Karanka will lead his Middlesbrough side out against former Barcelona midfielder Pep Guardiola who in turn will be bringing his superstar Manchester City squad here today with both teams looking to progress to the Wembley Semi-Finals.
For Middlesbrough this competition has been a very welcome distraction as they now find themselves in the Premier League relegation zone. The main reason for that has been their aversion to scoring goals, what was a concern is now a crisis as Boro’s form has seen their continual slide down the table hit a critical point.
The question for Middlesbrough will be whether or not they can find any semblance of goalscoring form in the last 11 league games which are to follow, quite simply they will need to if they have any desire of beating the drop. But after their recent performances you do wonder if they can break this barren run of goalscoring form.
It was a lack of goals that were Manchester City’s undoing on Wednesday as they were held to a 0-0 draw at home to a stubborn Stoke. A draw which saw them miss the opportunity to leapfrog Tottenham into 2nd in the Premier League table and they have to make do with 3rd by virtue of conceding more goals than the North London club.
With City traveling to Monaco for Champions League duty next week you wonder just how strong Pep Guardiola will make his starting eleven this Lunchtime. In the previous round it was an almost near strength side that was held at Huddersfield before eventually rolling them over in the replay.
And that is one thing that neither side will have to worry about due to the fact that replays have been scrapped at this stage of the competition so there must be a winner here at The Riverside, whether that is in 90 or 120 minutes or even a penalty shootout remains to be seen.
Like with any game that Middlesbrough have been in recently the opposition know that they only have to get ahead and then it’s all but game over. ‘Boro simply don’t have enough in them to get back into a game once going behind even with the apparent forward options they have.
If in the rare occasion they can get ahead then it’s a different story as their 3-2 win over Oxford Untied show in the previous round but even that was a fixture they made unnecessary hard work of therefore City will certainly fancy their chances in a few hours.
I think for Aitor Karanka’s men the cup run will end here and they will then have to focus in the arguably more important of getting out of the drop zone. While for Pep Guardiola his quest for a first English trophy will continue as they move on to the Semi Finals. An away win for me.
