{"id":417134,"date":"2026-04-25T16:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T16:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/417134\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T16:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T16:28:14","slug":"manchester-city-vs-southampton-predictions-best-bets-and-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/417134\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester City vs Southampton predictions, best bets and preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Football betting tips: FA Cup semi-final<\/p>\n<p>1pt Taylor Harwood-Bellis to be shown a card at 18\/5 (Ladbrokes, Coral)<\/p>\n<p>1pt James Bree to be shown a card at 11\/2 (bet365)<\/p>\n<p>0.5pt Harwood-Bellis and Bree to be carded at 27\/1 (bet365)<\/p>\n<p>*All bets settled in 90 mins<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/skybet.com\/football\/s-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sky Bet odds<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/media.paddypower.com\/redirect.aspx?pid=17682833&amp;bid=1538&amp;redirectURL=https:\/\/www.paddypower.com\/football?tab=competitions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Paddy Power<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.betfair.com\/betting\/football\/s-1&amp;host_url=ads.betfair.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Betfair<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Kick-off: Saturday, 17:15 BSTTV: BBC One\/TNT Sports 1<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportinglife.com\/football\/team\/manchester-city\/13\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Manchester City<\/a> made it five successive wins in midweek as they beat Burnley 1-0 at Turf Moor to go top of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportinglife.com\/football\/league-tables\/competition\/1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Premier League<\/a> for the first time since August.<\/p>\n<p>City may have disappointed in the Champions League round of 16 against Real Madrid earlier this month, losing 5-1 on aggregate, but domestically they have paced their season in exactly the same way Pep Guardiola&#8217;s successful sides always have during his decade in charge.<\/p>\n<p>Since losing to Manchester United and Bodo\/Glimt in the space of four miserable January days, at which point many called time on the Spaniard&#8217;s era at The Etihad, City have won 14 and drawn three games across the top flight, Carabao Cup and FA Cup.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportinglife.com\/football\/team\/southampton\/18\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Southampton<\/a> will quite rightly arrive at Wembley full of confidence themselves having last tasted defeat on January 17, a 20-match unbeaten run (W16 D4) under new manager Tonda Eckert that has transformed them from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportinglife.com\/football\/league-tables\/sky-bet-championship\/10\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Championship<\/a> strugglers to promotion contenders.<\/p>\n<p>They reached this stage by knocking out Arsenal, too, their second Premier League scalp of the campaign having won at Fulham in the fifth round. <\/p>\n<p>Nobody is giving Saints a prayer of causing an upset, but we can be sure Eckert&#8217;s men will want to make their presence felt at the national stadium, so the player cards market is certainly worth a look.<\/p>\n<p>Serial offenders <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportinglife.com\/football\/player\/flynn-downes\/27487\/stats\/southampton\/18\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Flynn Downes<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportinglife.com\/football\/player\/ryan-manning\/9706\/stats\/southampton\/18\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ryan Manning<\/a> are both suspended, but there are several other standout candidates TO BE SHOWN A CARD.<\/p>\n<p>Centre-back <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportinglife.com\/football\/player\/taylor-harwood-bellis\/66863\/stats\/southampton\/18\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">TAYLOR HARWOOD-BELLIS<\/a> is Saints&#8217; second-most booked player (10) this season behind Downes (15).<\/p>\n<p>Not only is he facing his former club, so may be more fired up than usual, but he will be up against an in-form <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportinglife.com\/football\/player\/erling-haaland\/29446\/stats\/manchester-city\/13\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Erling Haaland<\/a> who has proven to be a handful for opposition defences lately &#8211; at least one defender has been shown a card in four of City&#8217;s last five matches, with two being booked in three of those games.<\/p>\n<p>As well as backing Harwood-Bellis at 18\/5 the other defender to be carded takes care of itself, as not only is Manning missing, but captain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportinglife.com\/football\/player\/jack-stephens\/2356\/stats\/southampton\/18\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jack Stephens<\/a> faces a late fitness test.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportinglife.com\/football\/player\/james-bree\/4743\/stats\/southampton\/18\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">JAMES BREE<\/a>, one of the second tier&#8217;s most attacking full-backs, is likely to be tasked with dealing with the irrepressible <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportinglife.com\/football\/player\/jeremy-doku\/68682\/stats\/manchester-city\/13\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jeremy Doku<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Having collected nine cards this term across a loan spell at Charlton and the second half of the campaign back at his parent club, he&#8217;s a very backable 11\/2.<\/p>\n<p>The HARWOOD-BELLIS-BREE CARD DOUBLE pays 27\/1 with bet365.<\/p>\n<p>With potentially half Southampton&#8217;s first-choice defence missing, and key man Downes absent from central midfield it&#8217;s tempting to get Manchester City onside in some way, banking on them exploiting a weakened Saints XI and running riot.<\/p>\n<p>I have tried. The prices just aren&#8217;t there, so we stick with the cards; at least it means we can root for the underdog too.<\/p>\n<p>Odds correct at 17:00 BST (23\/4\/26)<\/p>\n<p>More from Sporting LifeSafer gambling<\/p>\n<p>We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.<\/p>\n<p>If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamcare.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">GamCare<\/a> on 0808 8020 133.<\/p>\n<p>Further support and information can be found at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.begambleaware.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">begambleaware.org<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamblingtherapy.org\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">gamblingtherapy.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Football betting tips: FA Cup semi-final 1pt Taylor Harwood-Bellis to be shown a card at 18\/5 (Ladbrokes, Coral)&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-417134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}