Manchester City – Manchester United (Premier League)
Manchester City and Manchester United will measure forces this Thursday, at Etihad Stadium (Manchester), in a very exciting derby for the 26th round of the Premier League. After a 3-1 home win against Hull city and a 0-3 away win against Southampton in the league’s last rounds, Manchester City arrive here unmotivated after losing against Arsenal (2-1), failing to reach the qualification to the the FA Cup final. Manchester United, on their turn, arrive here full of confidence after 2 consecutive wins in the league’s last rounds and after beating Anderlecht (2-1), assuring the qualification to the Europa League semi-finals.
Manchester City hold the 4th place in the Premier League table with 64 points, which comes from 19 victories, 7 draws and 6 defeats, with 63 goals scored and 35 goals conceded. The team has been presenting mixed results, since in their last 6 official matches, in this competition, they have won 2 matches, drew 2 and lost the other one. This sequence of results started with a 0-0 home draw against Stoke City, that was followed by a 1-1 home draw against Liverpool, a 2-2 away draw against Arsenal, a 2-1 home loss against Chelsea, and and mentioned before a 3-1 home win against Hull City and a 0-3 away win against Southampton.
At home for Premier league, so far, the team has played 15 matches: won 8, drew 6 and lost 1, that is, they have been making good use of the home advantage, since they haven’t been defeated in their last 8 home matches. In addition, they have scored consistently: they have 27 goals scored and 15 conceded. After a disappointing season, the only thing still worth fighting for is to reach the top 4.
Sergio Aguero, David Silva, Gabriel Jesus are expected to be fit for this clash. John Stones is a huge doubt and lkay Gündogan is out due to injury.
Probable Lineup: Bravo – Navas, Otamendi, Kompany, Clichy – Fernandinho, Touré – Sterling, De Bruyne, Sané – Aguero.
Manchester United hold the 5th place in the Premier League table with 63 points, which comes from 17 victories, 12 draws and 3 defeats, with 50 goals scored and 24 goals conceded. The team has been presenting a good performance this season, since in their last 6 official matches, in this competition, they have won 4 and drew 2. This sequence of results started with a 1-3 away win against Middlesbrough, that was followed by a 0-0 home draw against West Bromwich, a 1-1 home draw against Everton, a 0-3 away win against Sunderland, and as mentioned before a 2-0 home win against Chelsea and a 0-2 away win against Burnley. In addition, they haven’t been defeated in their last 23 matches for Premier league.
Away from home, in this competition, so far, the team has played 15 matches: won 10, drew 3 and lost 2, that is, they have been showing some really good results out of theirs domains. In addition, they have scored consistently: they have 27 goals scored and 13 conceded. Also, in their last 4 away matches they have only 1 goal conceded. After an amazing season they are fighting for the Europa League title and and still want to reach the top 4 of this competition.
Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Juan Mata, Marcos Rojo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic are out due to injury. Antonio Valencia, Herrera and Paul Pogba are expected to be fit for this clash.
Probable Lineup: De Gea – Valencia, Bailly, Blind, Darmian – Herrera, Carrick – Lingard, Mkhitaryan, Young – Rashford.
With very talented players, it´s to predict a derby of high intensity, but the home advantage may play an important role.
