Manchester City are set to take on Middlesbrough in a very important league game on Sunday, 30th April 2017 at the Riverside Stadium. Man City must win this game to keep themselves in good shape for top four finish while must win to have a slender chance of survival in the league.
Middlesbrough 2-2 Manchester City Highlights
[ Premier League 2017 Match ]
38′ 1 – 0 Alvaro Negredo gave struggling Middlesbrough a surprise lead at Riverside stadium to stun City.
69′ 1 – 1 Sergio Aguero
77′ 2 – 1 Calum Chambers
85′ 2 – 2 Gabriel Jesus
City are coming into this weekend’s game on the back of a massive 3-1 win over Barcelona in the Champions League and they will be full confidence which is not a news Middlesbrough will welcome. However Middlesbrough has a very solid away record having only lost 1 game of the 5 away matches played this season. City on the other hand has won three and drawn 2 of their home league games so far this season.
Manchester City 1-0 Middlesbrough – 11 March 2017
[ English FA Cup 2017 ]
03′ 0 – 1 David Silva scores inside first three minutes after Zabeleta squared a nice looking ball inside the box and Silva slotted home with a left footed strike.
Last time these two meet was back in November when Middlesbrough salvaged a draw at Emirates Stadium with a late strike. We can expect similar game on Saturday.
Manchester City 1-1 Middlesbrough:
[ English Premier League 2016-17 Match ]
43′ 1 – 0 Sergio Aguero scores just before the break to finally put City in lead after they dominated the game for most part.
90′ 1 – 1 Marten De Roon scored in injury time to make it 1-1.
Team News & Lineups: Middlesbrough broke their 7 game winless streak last weekend and will be eager to build on that but they have a massive task at their hands when they face City are playing some brilliant football at the moment. City will have to rotate a few players after that epic win in midweek but the likes of Aguero, de Bruyne, Silva and Sterling should retain their places in the starting lineup.
This is how I expect both teams to lineup on Saturday afternoon.
Both of these teams have meet twice in FA Cup since Middlesbrough’s relegation from premier league and their most recent meeting ended in Middlesbrough getting a surprise win over City in 2015 FA Cup. However this City is at a whole different level and we might see another thumping for Middlesbrough on saturday.
I am going with a comfortable City win with probably early goals. De Bruyne is the most important player in City’s lineup and he along with Aguero should get on the score-sheet.