Middlesbrough – Manchester City Prediction & Preview and Betting Tips (11.03.2017)

Prediction for Middlesbrough – Manchester City

Win Middlesbrough Asian Handicap +1.5 @ 1.57

Match corresponding to the quarterfinals of the FA Cup where they will play Middlesbrough and Manchester City.

Middlesbrough

I’m going to talk a little about the situation of each team in the league to see how they get to this meeting and their career in the tournament until this meeting.

On the local side;

– Middlesbrough occupy the 18th place in the Premier League with just 22 points in 27 appearances. Their balance is of 4 victories, 10 ties and 13 defeats where they have scored 19 goals and they have fit 30. They are in positions of descent and they have the salvation to 3 points.

– They chafe 10 meetings without knowing the victory and this has made that the team has gone from being in the middle of table to put itself in positions of descent. Last week they fell 2-0 in their visit to Stoke City.

– At Riverside Stadium they do not have good numbers despite having won more than half of their total points in their stadium. In the 13 games played in front of their people they have won 3 wins, 4 draws and 6 losses where they have scored 11 goals and have conceded 14. They have 4 games left in a home winless.

– Only 2 of those 6 defeats have been for 2 or more goals (1-3 vs West Ham and 0-3 vs Liverpool). Chelsea and Tottenham, teams similar to Manchester City, were only able to win by 1 goal (0-1 and 1-2 respectively).

We are going to their trajectory in the FA Cup.

– Middlesbrough have played a total of 3 games to reach the quarter-finals. In the 1/32 finals they successfully won the Sheffield Wednesday (Championship) 3-0. In the 1/16 finals they won 1-0 against the Accrington (League Two) and in the 1/8 final they won 3-2 at the Oxford Utd (League One) in a game that came to be ahead with a 2-0 but in 2 minutes the Oxford equalized the score and in 86 Stuani made the goal of the victory.

– The FA Cup is the only joy that the Middlesbrough fans are having and they will fight to the fullest to try to get into the semifinals and thus save a season that seems to end worse than expected.

Manchester City

On the visitor side;

– Manchester City of Guardiola occupies the third place in the league with 55 points. His current balance is 17 wins, 4 draws and 5 defeats where they have scored 53 goals and have conceded 29, being the team more scorer and the 3rd less thrashing. Today they occupy a direct access to the UCL and have a mattress of 3 points over Liverpool, 4th place, but nevertheless Guardiola have a less match and this fact (if they win) can cause them to rise to the 2nd place in the championship.

– In their last 5 league games they have won 4 wins and 1 draw and have not lost since January 15 where they fell 4-0 at Everton.

– Away from Ettihad Stadium their numbers are very good. In the 14 exits they have made, in 10 occasions they have managed to win and in the other 4 they were defeated.

– On Wednesday 15 they have the second leg of the UCL round of 16 where they will travel to Monaco with a 2-goal lead after winning 5-3 at home 15 days ago. A tough match is expected, as it has been in the first leg, and I do not think Guardiola will play the FA Cup match with the 11th starter, but I see a lot of rotations considering the match against the French. This already happened a few weeks ago when Guardiola players played the previous FA Cup game against a Huddersfield (Championship) and did not pass the initial draw.

His career in the FA Cup.

– The City had to spend 3 rounds to reach this match. In the 1/32 they swept to West Ham endosandole a painful 0-5. In the 1/16 also had no complications as they won 0-3 at Crystal Palace. In the 1/8 they needed 2 games to eliminate the humble Huddersfield since in the first match they did not pass the incicial tie (already I mentioned above what Pep did in that match) and in the Ettihad they began losing but they did not have mercy to the hour To start the machine and ended up winning 5-1.

More than going in favor of Middlesbrough, is a layeo to the City since 4 days after that encounter they will have to play the most important game of the season so far.