Manchester City will be bidding to reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup when they make the trip to Championship side Peterborough United on Tuesday night.
The English champions beat Fulham 4-1 in the previous round of the competition, while Peterborough secured their spot at this stage courtesy of a 2-0 home success over Queen Park Rangers.
Match preview
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Peterborough have won two home ties to advance to the fifth round of this season's FA Cup, recording a 2-1 victory over Bristol Rovers on January 8 before beating Queens Park Rangers 2-0 at the start of February.
The Posh have already exceeded expectations in this season's competition and are bidding to reach the quarter-finals for the first time since 1965, which is an indication of the size of their task on Tuesday night.
Darren Ferguson resigned as Peterborough manager on February 20, with the club currently bottom of the Championship table, boasting just 21 points from their 33 matches.
Grant McCann was reappointed as head coach on a two-and-a-half-year deal last week, but the 41-year-old was unable to make a winning start on Saturday, with the strugglers losing 3-0 at home to Hull City.
Peterborough, who are back in league action away to high-flying Huddersfield Town on March 4, will be taking on Man City for the first time since February 1981, when the Citizens recorded a 1-0 victory in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
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While Peterborough are battling to stay in the Championship, Man City are again flying high at the top of English football, sitting first in the Premier League table, six points clear of second-placed Liverpool, who have a game in hand following their involvement in Sunday's EFL Cup final with Chelsea.
Pep Guardiola's side suffered a 3-2 home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on February 19 but were back to winning ways at Goodison Park on Saturday, beating Everton courtesy of an 82nd-minute effort from Phil Foden.
The Citizens have hardly needed to break a sweat in this season's FA Cup, winning 4-1 at Swindon Town in the third round of the competition before beating Championship side Fulham by the same scoreline on February 5.
Man City have won the FA Cup on six occasions, the last of which was in 2019, when they beat Watford 6-0 in the final, and they are considered by many to be the favourites for this season's crown.
The English champions have been semi-finalists in the last two campaigns, and it is slightly surprising that Guardiola has only won one FA Cup during his time at the Etihad Stadium considering the enormous success that the Spaniard has enjoyed since arriving in 2016.
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Team News
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Peterborough will again be missing Nathan Thompson through injury, while Jack Taylor is likely to miss out, with his return expected to come against Huddersfield in the league on March 4.
Mark Beevers could make the bench for this match, with the experienced central defender closing in on a return from a muscular problem.
Dan Butler is set to miss out with an ankle injury, though, and it would not be a surprise to see a similar side to the one that featured against Hull in the Championship on Saturday.
Man City's squad is in excellent shape at the moment, with Gabriel Jesus and Jack Grealish both returning to the bench against Everton on Saturday after spells on the sidelines.
Guardiola selected a strong XI in the previous round against Fulham, and there are expected to be plenty of familiar names in the starting side on Tuesday night.
There will certainly be changes from the Everton match, though, with Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Kyle Walker, Grealish, Fernandinho and Nathan Ake all in line for starting roles against the Championship club.
Bernardo Silva, Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden, Ruben Dias, Aymeric Laporte and Joao Cancelo could all be rested ahead of the league game with Manchester United on March 6, but Ederson could continue in goal, as Zack Steffen is still out with a shoulder problem.
Peterborough United possible starting lineup:
Benda; Knight, Edwards, Kent; Ward, Norburn, Grant, Coulson; Morton, Szmodics, Marriott
Manchester City possible starting lineup:
Ederson; Walker, Stones, Ake, Zinchenko; De Bruyne, Fernandinho, Gundogan; Mahrez, Jesus, Grealish
We say: Peterborough United 0-3 Manchester City
Peterborough will see this match as a free hit, but it is very difficult to predict anything other than a comfortable away victory. Man City's team will be full of quality even if Guardiola makes five or six changes, so the English champions should have far too much for their Championship opponents.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Manchester City win with a probability of 84.03%. A draw had a probability of 11.9% and a win for Peterborough United had a probability of 4.11%.
The most likely scoreline for a Manchester City win was 0-2 with a probability of 16.46%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-3 (14.27%) and 0-1 (12.66%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (5.34%), while for a Peterborough United win it was 1-0 (2.05%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 16.5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 0-2 win for Manchester City in this match and our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted the win for Manchester City.
