Manchester City will “suffer” against Newport in Saturday’s FA Cup fifth-round tie, says boss Pep Guardiola. The Premier League champions travel to south Wales knowing their opponents have already beaten Leicester and Middlesbrough in the competition. League Two Newport have never been past the fifth round of the competition, while City are five-time winners. “They are taller and stronger than us. In some areas they will be better than us,” warned Guardiola.
“They have done incredibly well in this competition. What they do, they do really well. We have watched many games to see what they do.” City were knocked out of the FA Cup in the fifth round last season by Wigan Athletic, then of League One, and Guardiola said his team would learn from past experiences. He added he would not allow his players to become complacent, despite Newport being 83 places below City in the football pyramid. “It is the cup. We know what happened last season at Wigan,” Guardiola said. “Anything can happen. We will take this very seriously. Normally we play in the Premier League games and our players already know what opponents do. [Newport] have players who have scored 14 or 15 goals; they are incredible on the set pieces.” City will be without the injured Vincent Kompany and Benjamin Mendy for the trip to Rodney Parade.
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