Mancini Thrown To The Wolves

So Manchester City continue their revisiting of teams they have played in the Cup Final throughout their history. After defeating Birmingham City 2-0 midweek, a team they beat 3-1 in the FA Cup Final of 1956 they now face Wolverhampton Wanderers. It was Wolves that City faced in the League Cup final of 1974, the only time they were in the Final and DIDN'T win. In fact since that defeat City haven't met Wolves in any cup since! Which makes this game the first chance to settle the score for almost 38 years!

League wise these two teams have been quite evenly matched throughout the years. After meeting a total of 106 times City won 41 times compared to Wolves 42 wins. Cup wise though City are firmly second off to their Midlands counterparts. Manchester City have only won once in their cup meetings, the 1971 Round 2, a 4-3 win with Bell scoring a brace, Lee with a penalty and Davis also on the scoresheet. However Wolves can boast a 1-0 win in the FA Cup second round in 1911, the 1952 replay win (4-1) and of course the 1974 Final.

Now both the teams have changed since that last encounter. Manchester City have, in recent years, assembled a team capable of emulating and exceeding that achieved by the boys of the 1960's and 1970's and even if Mancini fields a 'weakened' side it will still be stronger than most. Mick McCarthy has been no slouch either though. In a previous article I tipped them to finish on the top half of the table this go around and certainly their start has not been too bad. Sure they have lost all their last three but to be fair two of those were against Liverpool and Tottenham so it wasn't totally unexpected. In fact the only real blip has been the 3-0 defeat at home to QPR last week.

Manchester City will be firm favorites going into this tie and if they progress what are the chances of them meeting other teams they have played in previous finals? Pretty good! Newcastle, Everton, Bolton and Stoke are still in the competition.

Written by: PA Cityboy