Manchester City v Sheffield United - FA Cup Stats

It’s been an incredible week for Manchester City. Their 3-1 win over Leicester put them closer to leaders Arsenal, who drew at West Ham, before travelling and putting six-time Champions League winners out of the competition. Now they travel to Wembley for a place in the FA Cup Final and to make it, they must do something they’ve never done before - beat Sheffield United in the FA Cup.

The blues have faced the Blades six times and have failed to win any of those matches. They first met in the FA Cup in January 1906. On that occasions, United ran out 4-1 winners at Bramhall Lane.

The two teams met three times in March 1914, twice at Maine Road, yet the blues failed to score in any of the matches. The original tie and reply across the Pennines ended goalless, before United won the second reply 1-0 at Hyde Road.

In January 1939, City once again made the trip over the Snake Pass and were beaten 2-0, before Sven Goran Erikssen tried his luck in 2008, where two first-half goals and an assist by a balloon knocked City out as the Blades won 2-1.

Previous Cup Meetings

City have faced the Blades in other cup competitions, and the results have been different. Since losing 4-2 at Bramhall Lane in the Texaco Cup in 1974, City beat United 3-1 in the Anglo-Scottish Cup in August 1975.

Ten years later, City beat the Blades 2-1 in the Full Members Cup, then won their League Cup clash at Maine Road 4-2 in 1988. Their final win in a cup competition came via a 2-0 win at Bramhall Lane in the amazing Zenith Data Systems Cup.

Form

Saturday will be the first time they have met at Wembley and both teams are in good form going into the match.

City are currently on an unbeaten run of 15 matches in all competitions, winning 12 and drawing two. Wednesday’s draw in Munich ended a run of ten straight wins. With the blues looking for another treble, the will have to start another winning run by booking a return trip to Wembley.

The Blades are on the verge of joining Burnley back in the Premier League and have lost just five of their last 27 matches in all competitions. Tuesday’s 1-0 home win over Bristol City has put them within one win of returning to the top-flight, and a trip to Wembley at the end of the season would be the icing on the cake for them.

Route to Wembley

City defeated Chelsea 2-0 in the third round in January, while the Blades at won at Millwall by the same score. The fourth round saw Nathan Ake score the only goal as City beat Arsenal 1-0. United needed two attempts to beat Wrexham, scoring a last-minute equaliser in a 3-3 draw. In the reply, the Blades broke Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s hearts as United beat their club 3-1.

Round five sent City to Bristol, where they continued to keep a clean sheet, beating Bristol City 3-0. United left it late in their home tie with Spurs, but ultimately won 1-0. The last eight saw City cruise to a 6-0 win over Vincent Kompany’s Burnley, while City loanee Tommy Doyle scored a stunning late winner as the Blades beat Blackburn 3-2 at Bramhall Lane to set up their clash with City.