Begone international break – it’s City v Liverpool on Saturday!

FA Cup quarter-final weekend is here to sprinkle a little bit of magic about, and the Etihad Stadium is the venue for the pick of the fixtures as Arne Slot’s inconsistent Reds make the trip down the M62 to take on the newly-crowned Carabao Cup champions.

Here to deliver a smidgen of sparkly wonder of his own is Peter Crouch, who has put together a nifty Bet Builder for Liverpool v Man City too…

Man City to win
Both teams to score: Yes
Erling Haaland to score
Florian Wirtz to have 1+ shots on target

A Bet Builder on these selections pays at approximately 5/1 with Paddy Power. CLICK OR TAP HERE TO ADD IT TO YOUR BETSLIP

WHEN: Saturday, April 4, 12:45pm
WHERE: Etihad Stadium, Manchester
WATCH: TNT Sports 1

Man City were class in the Carabao Cup final and deserved the win. It’ll give them huge confidence going into the final games of the season as well as Saturday’s cup quarter final against Liverpool at the Etihad.

Arsenal are probably too far ahead now in the league but it shows what Guardiola’s side can do on their day and that the title’s not sewn up yet if Arsenal slip.

It’d be amazing to have an “off season” by their standards and still finish with two trophies if they can win the FA Cup as well – every team, possibly bar Arsenal, would take that if you offered it at the start of the season.

And we saw what winning it meant to the manager. With Liverpool slipping away this season, it shows the rivalry between Arsenal and Man City building too. And with Mikel Arteta having been his assistant, there’s friendly rivalry between them that means there’s more to these games than just the teams on the pitch. When you see the celebrations, it says “I want to do better than you”.

For Liverpool, this week could define their season – get a win against City and a big result against Paris, it’d be an amazing week.

PSG are probably the best team in Europe still, so it’s a tough draw, but if they can get a run together in Europe, the league form will become irrelevant. With the club’s history in the competition, and if they can combine that with an FA Cup run too, it could still be a successful season.

Liverpool have been so inconsistent this season, that’s the frustration. In those big games, there has been that lack of quality.

I was at their last league game, against Brighton, and they were miles of where they need to be – they really deserved to lose. If they lose both these games coming up, there’ll be questions asked for sure.

Man City to winBoth teams to score

Man City have won both the league games this season but this is nowhere near the level of City teams we’ve seen before. Losing a third to them would be a real disappointment, but they look too strong to me.

We know how tight these games can be, but with home advantage, the boost from winning against Arsenal and the way both sides have been playing recently, I have to go for them to win in 90 minutes, unfortunately. I could see it finishing 2-1 or 3-1 to City.

Erling Haaland to score

We probably expect a bit too much from Erling Haaland because he’s scored at such a rate in the past – he’s been superhuman, there’s just no way you could keep up the rate of goals he was scoring. It was over one a game at times.

He’s had a bit of a sticky patch recently, but that’s not his true form either. You know he’ll be back scoring more soon, and if City are going to score a few on Saturday like I expect, chances are Haaland has at least one of them.

Florian Wirtz to have 1+ shots on target

I like him a lot and had big hopes for this season. It’s taken a bit of time to get used to the Premier League and next season he’ll be fantastic. He scored a cracking goal in the international break for Germany and played really well against Switzerland for them. He’s had a shot on target in four of his last five games for Liverpool too, so a shot on target is worth including in your Bet Builder for this game.

Man City to win
Both teams to score: Yes
Erling Haaland to score
Florian Wirtz to have 1+ shots on target

A Bet Builder on these selections pays at approximately 5/1 with Paddy Power. CLICK OR TAP HERE TO ADD IT TO YOUR BETSLIP

*All odds quoted are correct at time of publication but subject to change

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