 |
| Image from Norwich City |
Manchester United continued their unbeaten run with an emphatic victory against Sheffield United at Old Trafford through Martial’s first career hattrick. United will now look to extend their run to 14 unbeaten matches as they travel to Carrow Road for the FA Cup Quarter Final. Norwich of course are bottom of the Premier League and have a huge mountain to climb in surviving with seven games to go and so the FA Cup could be a consolation prize in a dire season for the Canaries. Here’s all you need to know:
Teams: Norwich City vs Manchester United
Date: Saturday 27th June 2020
KO Time: 17:30 GMT
Stadium: Carrow Road
Managers: Daniel Farke and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Referee: Jonathan Moss
Team News:
For Norwich City, the injury list has lessened after the three month break but long-term injuries to Grant Hanley, Cristoph Zimmerman and Sam Byram remain out. Pukki, Buendia and Cantwell were all on the bench for the loss at home to Everton which implies that they will start against Manchester United. Marco Stiepermann was on the bench as well after testing positive for the Coronavirus earlier this month and so could be available too.
Manchester United may decide to rest a few players and rotate with such a large squad available and may give starts to Williams, Bailly, Mata and Ighalo among others. Phil Jones and, more disappointingly, Axel Tuanzebe remain injured but the squad is fully fit other than that. Pogba could get some valuable minutes under his belt after playing 78 minutes against the Blades on Wednesday. Solskjaer has also said that Lingard would feature but I do expect that to be from the bench.
Interesting Facts:
- The last time Norwich scored a goal was in their FA Cup victory over Tottenham Hotspur in February
- Anthony Martial could make his 300th senior appearance against Norwich
- Juan Mata got two assists against Norwich last time out and has five goals and four assists against the Canaries in seven appearances – the most contributions he has made against any club
- The last time Norwich beat Manchester United at Carrow Road was a 1-0 win in 2012 from Anthony Pilkington. Only Phil Jones is left from the 18 that travelled that day.
Predicted Lineup and Score:
I do expect some changes to the squad due to fitness and rotation for the cup but I expect Ole to take Norwich seriously and still field a strong team. They have got creditable results against City, Arsenal and Spurs and so they can be dangerous when the defences are not switched on. I’d like to see Williams and Bailly play and perhaps give Shaw and Lindelof a rest. I still want Maguire and Wan-Bissaka in defence as they have been so crucial all season and I don’t trust Dalot with Cantwell. Pogba should start to get a few more minutes in him and I expect Bruno to play but come off after an hour. It’d be great to see Mata on the right, James on the left and Ighalo up front as they could do with some game time and I think James could be deadly coming in from the left and is in desperate need of a confidence boost after a poor performance against Spurs.
Predicted Team: Romero, Wan-Bissaka, Bailly, Maguire, Williams, McTominay, Pogba, Mata, Fernandes, James, Ighalo
As for the score, I expect United to put in a quality performance and punish Norwich on the counter. I’d like a big victory and one to push us into a difficult match against a resurgent Brighton.
Predicted Score: 0-4 to United
