Another Stoke Man city confrontation within less than 2 weeks. The 1st one was the FA Cup draw at Eastlands, the 2nd was the EPl draw at Stoke, and this one; the replay of the FA Cup fixture also looks like a draw in the original 90 minutes.
I refuse to accept Man City are favourites here. They had their chance not once but twice in the span of 4 days, and still couldn’t win either or even offer something to support the claim they should be favourites.
They’re also on a 3 games draw streak, which was also the case with Stoke before they won away at Portsmouth in the weekend, so I say the game is very much balanced with a very little (read: negligible) advantage to Stoke, being at home once again.
Let’s also not forget the Citizens are chasing a CL spot on the league table, and they get to play at Stamford Bridge in the weekend, so they must already have an eye on that game, while Stoke are fairly safe in EPL with no European ambition, so they are the side to be more focused here.
Still no Tevez for the visitors, and we all know what this means, especially with Bellamy not completely fit. They also still miss Vieira in their midfield, as well as Petrov.
Stoke only miss Wilkinson and Faye, which admittedly could be considered a defensive problem, but another defender; Higginbotham should be back to ease the pain.
Conclusion: I bet this one will ALSO end in a draw in the original 90 minutes. 1-1 also even. I’d half heartedly back Stoke to win in extra-time, but it could very well go into a PK shoot-out.
Picks:
Draw
