- Liverpool face Manchester City in the Emirates FA Cup Quarter Finals
- Man City will be confident after lifting the EFL Cup
- Liverpool welcome back Mohamed Salah for the fixture
Liverpool return to the flow of domestic action on Saturday lunchtime, after the international break, with a tough FA Cup quarter-final tie against Manchester City.
Arne Slot‘s Reds will be desperate to return to winning ways as soon as possible, after entering the break on a dire 2-1 defeat away at Brighton and Hove Albion.
No home comforts are forthcoming here, though, as the Merseyside giants will have to topple Pep Guardiola’s men at the Etihad if they want to progress into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time since 2022.
That’s the same year they lifted the famous trophy, at the expense of Chelsea, via a penalty shoot-out.
Here is everything you need to know, ahead of the two powerhouses locking horns in Manchester.
How to watch
The FA Cup quarter-final showdown at the Etihad will kick off at 12:45 pm GMT, with the match being broadcast live on TNT Sports 1, Prime Video UK, and HBO Max in the UK.
The pre-match build-up will begin at 11:30 am on TNT Sports 1.
Recent form
Manchester City
While Liverpool needs a confidence boost, City will head into the Cup clash on Easter Saturday, believing they can get the better of Slot’s men, after lifting the EFL Cup at Wembley, just before the break.
Indeed, City eased past Arsenal 2-0 at Wembley to lift the first silverware of the season, as Nico O’Reilly powered home both goals for the visitors from Manchester.
Besides this win, however, City have wobbled across recent matches.
Two defeats to Real Madrid in the Champions League in quick succession have killed Guardiola and Co’s hopes of adding this illustrious trophy to their collection, while a 1-1 draw with West Ham United in mid-March halted their march up the Premier League standings to compete with league leaders Arsenal.
A 3-1 win over Newcastle United in the FA Cup does stick out, though, across their last five games, as the ten-time Premier League winners attempt to reach Wembley, again, by beating Liverpool.
Liverpool
Much like their familiar top-flight foe, Liverpool’s form across their last five games has been wildly inconsistent.
Two wins have come their way, courtesy of 3-1 and 4-0 victories being secured against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Galatasaray in the FA Cup and Champions League, respectively, but it’s been far from smooth sailing.
Indeed, they also lost their first-leg encounter in Europe’s premier competition 1-0, when travelling to face the Turkish giants, with another dire away trip seeing them come unstuck 2-1 to Brighton and Hove Albion.
Liverpool must push all this away-day agony to one side when travelling to the Etihad on Saturday, if they want to reach the semi-final stages.
The Reds last taste of victory at the Etihad arrived in historic fashion on April 26, 2025, a day that will live long in the memory as Slot’s side effectively secured the Premier League title in the champion’s own backyard.
On a tense afternoon in Manchester, goals from Mohamed Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai were enough to spark scenes of jubilation in the away end and leave the home crowd silenced as the trophy returned to Anfield.
Liverpool’s recent form at the Etihad (last 5 trips):
| Date | Competition | Result | Score |
| Nov 9 2025 | Premier League | Loss | 3-0 |
| Feb 23 2025 | Premier League | Win | 0-2 |
| Nov 25 2023 | Premier League | Draw | 1-1 |
| Apr 1 2023 | Premier League | Loss | 4-1 |
| Dec 22 2022 | EFL Cup | Loss | 3-2 |
Team news
Man City: Ruben Dias (out), John Stones (doubt), and Josko Gvardiol (out)
Liverpool: Alisson (out), Joe Gomez (out), Conor Bradley (out), Giovanni Leoni (out), and Waturo Endo (out)
Predicted lineups
Manchester City (4-2-3-1): Trafford, Nunes, Guehi, Ake, O’Reilly, Rodri, Silva, Doku, Cherki, Semenyo, Haaland
Liverpool: (4-2-3-1): Mamardashvili, Szoboszlai, van Dijk, Konate, Robertson, Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Wirtz, Jones, Nguhoma, Ekitike
What has been said
Pep Guardiola Manchester City):
The City boss is relishing this upcoming encounter and said:“I have said many times, it has been the biggest rival,” said Pep.
“It’s a team that made an incredible investment last season to be there for many, many years.
“It’s in the Champions League. It’s a top contender with top class players all of them and hopefully we perform the level like we did against Arsenal to make the next step.”
Arne Slot (Liverpool) :
In his pre-match press conference on Friday, Slot addressed the grueling nature of the 2025/26 schedule which has seen his side play a relentless run of fixtures across the Premier League, Champions League, and domestic cups—and reflected on the controversial 2-1 defeat to City at Anfield in February.
“It’s been very hard for us and a struggle for us to play the amount of games. Every time after a good game even that City game [in November] where we played three days after Real Madrid that has been our biggest problem: struggling to play so many games regardless of the result. That has been the biggest issue for this team, not the games themselves, because we have shown we have quality players.”
“Now we have to show that if there’s progress, we can also show that in an away game, because it’s usually tougher to play away from home than at Anfield. It’s interesting for us to see now where we are.”
