Stefan Ortega and Sergio Gomez to start – Predicted XI: Bristol City vs Manchester City (FA Cup Fifth Round) | OneFootball

Manchester City travel to Ashton Gate this week for their FA Cup fifth round tie against Bristol City on Tuesday night.

While City are on a positive vein of form themselves across all competitions, their opponents this week are currently unbeaten since Boxing Day despite finding themselves mid-table in the Championship.

Nigel Pearson’s side are expected to provide a stern test of Manchester City’s cross-competition resolve, with Pep Guardiola’s players still competing on three fronts heading towards March.

With Bristol City being Manchester City’s opponents in the next round of the FA Cup this week, the reigning Premier League champions are also contending with Arsenal in a top-flight title battle, as well as a Champions League last-16 tie finely poised at 1-1 heading into the second-leg at the Etihad Stadium in the coming weeks.

Ahead of the clash at Ashton Gate this week, here is how we expect Pep Guardiola to line-up his side amidst a hectic Premier League fixture schedule around the fixture!

Predicted XI

Stefan Ortega will take up the goalkeeping duties this week, as per standard procedure for Pep Guardiola and his starting line-ups in Cup competitions.

While Rico Lewis put in another exemplary performance when called upon at the weekend, we expect Kyle Walker to come back into the side to enable a change at left-back that could also see City invert from that side of the full-back berths.

With Aymeric Laporte and John Stones continuing to recover from illness and injury respectively, Pep Guardiola may have little choice but to continue with his usual centre-back combination and allow mainstay left-back Nathan Ake some rest ahead of the weekend: Manuel Akanji and Ruben Dias.

Over at left-back, we believe this could be an opportunity to grant Sergio Gomez minutes, and also test the Spaniard in the inverted role, operating throughout the match from a defensive midfield area – especially having been utilised in the centre after coming on against Bournemouth on Saturday evening.

Rodri is expected to continue in defensive midfield for this contest, as Kalvin Phillips continues to transition towards fully understanding the Pep Guardiola system.

While the Spaniard is taking on a concerning amount of responsibility during such a busy period of the season, the pair could be switched around either at half-time, or early in the second-half – depending on the scoreline.

We believe Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan will be Manchester City’s more advanced midfield combination, with the latter offering support in behind Erling Haaland in attacking positions.

Fresh from another impressive outing when granted the opportunity to play, we anticipate that Julian Alvarez will retain his place in the starting XI this week, following on from his goal against Bournemouth on Saturday.

The Argentine could start in the right-wing role to begin with in this one, with Phil Foden returning to the left of an attacking three, in order to hand attacking mainstay Jack Grealish some much-needed rest ahead of the coming Premier League meetings.

Erling Haaland will start in attack for us – unsurprisingly.

Starting XI: Ortega; Walker, Akanji, Dias, Gomez; Rodri, Bernardo, Gundogan; Alvarez, Haaland, Foden.

Substitutes: Ederson, Lewis, Stones, Ake, Phillips, Perrone, De Bruyne, Mahrez, Grealish.