Middlesbrough FA Cup Quarter Final (A) Review.

We're going to Wembley. Get in boys. Into the semi-finals where we will discover who we play at Wembley (tonight). Hopefully City will get a decent tie (I want anyone but Arsenal, the big pitch suits them too). We play for a place in the final so this officially counts as a cup run now. We have played away in all of the matches (replay in the 5th round against Huddersfield at home but we started away), playing at the London Stadium, Selhurst Park, John Smith's stadium and now the Riverside. None of them easy but City progress. We are going strong. We look to the international break next week and we have 2 massive games before then. Monaco away, to progress to the quarter finals in the Champions League if we can avoid losing by 2. Then onto a home match against Liverpool (who are 4th and we are 3rd), huge in context for the top 4 place outcome. We need 2 good results. One game at a time. Come on boys, build on this FA Cup run. 

For the quarter final match, M'brough lacked a lot of belief, didn't play well and if they continue so poorly with their form and not finding the net, they will go down. They look low. City outplayed them and it finished 2-0. To be honest, i'm disappointed we didn't score more as we looked great. Silva bagged a goal after two minutes. Yaya feeds Zaba in, he squares for Sterling who misses his kick and Silva follows it straight at Guzan and into the net. Poor from Boro's defence. Guzan made a lot of saves and looked well. M'boro did have a couple of chances to equalise. The first, a corner and header straight at Bravo, who rebounds it to Zaba who clears on the line. A near disaster avoided, well played Zaba. They looked decent on set pieces and their corner caused problems, crossing free kicks too. M'boro did foul a lot, but nothing to the extent that City fans are moaning at. Jasper Carrot wasn't great but I've seen worse. M'boro chipped at the City boys and were aggressive, they might have seen red on others but not to worry, we won and came out fine. Builds us up well for a show down in a few weeks back at the Riverside for the Premier League place, M'boro may be fighting for their PL lives and City may be battling it out for Champions League football next season. Who knows what will happen over the next few weeks. The Premier League for you. City had shots at Guzan, Sterling went wide, Sane missed some great chances and plays the wrong final ball sometimes but how good does he look? His pace and skill causes so many problems, it creates so much space for Aguero, Sterling, KDB, Silva and Yaya. Beautiful little player. Sane, midway through the second half, zapped a ball low and Kun Aguero (lovingly) taps in. 2-0 game done. Pep looked delighted with Aguero at the end and he should be, he tracked his runs, looked lively, had shots and got them on target and he scored. More of the same on Saturday. I have only two criticisms of the team, one, KDB looked poor. He looks tired, he passes back too much. He looks better out wide, his crossing is great, even yesterday and last Wednesday. He should have had 3 or 4 assists in his last 2 games, he lays chances on a plate and they all seem to be coming from the right wing and right centre. He just looks tired, a shame Gundogan is injured but with Yaya looking great, maybe a midfield of Dinho, Yaya and Silva may work for a couple of games and rest KDB. The second criticism is simply, finish your chances boys. If we don't we won't go through against Monaco and we won't beat Liverpool and the season is in jeopardy. It needs sorting soon. Monaco will score at least 2 or 3 times on Wednesday, we need to sort out shooting and scoring. We was clinical at the Etihad against them, more of the same is needed on Wednesday and Sunday. The team is capable, we are playing really well. We are playing so well, we deserve to batter a team soon, I'm talking 4,5,6 goals for us. We are playing well. 

I'll preview on Wednesday afternoon after Pep's press conference for team news, predictions and analysis. I'll review the game on Thursday or Friday and preview the L'pool game, that will take us nicely to the international break. Come on boys.