City Watch: Blues through in FA Cup

Manchester City faced a tough FA Cup draw away at St James’ Park against Newcastle on Saturday, a team we’d already played four times previously this season across all domestic competitions. 

Pep made a multitude of changes heading into the game, which for the first 20 minutes, looked like it was going to cost him just like it had against Bayer Leverkusen earlier on in the season. 

Harvey Barnes scored early on in the first half, and it could’ve been more.

Luckily, something clicked for the Blues before half time with Savinho posing a huge threat down the right hand side and eventually scoring one of the strangest tap ins I’ve ever seen. 

If you’ve seen the goal, you’ll know what I mean, but the ball came across the six yard box and the Brazilian almost seemed surprised that it had reached him, so much so that he didn’t actually kick it, he just let the ball hit him.

Regardless, City went in level, before making an instant impact in the second half through Omar Marmoush, who later doubled his tally with a fantastic curling effort. 

The Egyptian seems to enjoy playing the Geordies; he’s scored 14 goals for the Blues since joining last summer, and seven of them have come against Eddie Howe’s side.

The draw for the Quarter Finals took place on Monday, and with teams like Port Vale and Southampton still in the mix, I was hoping for a more simplistic tie with just one win to go before Wembley. 

Typically, the opposite happened, Liverpool will be travelling to the Etihad to face Pep’s side the week after the international break. 

Before the Premier League returns this weekend with a trip to the London Stadium to face in form West Ham, the Champions League has returned and City will travel to the Bernabeu for the first leg of their round of 16 tie.

By the time this column is released, the game will have concluded, so you will know where we stand heading into the second leg next week. 

Real Madrid have some key players sidelined for this important fixture; the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham, Rodrygo and three more of their first teamers won’t feature.

Since Mbappe and Rodrygo especially have loved tearing us to pieces in the past, I’d say this give us a slight advantage. 

However, despite the fact the Blues have already got the better of the Spanish side away from home in the group stages this season, this is Real Madrid in Europe, and you can never write them off…