- Manchester City will play Liverpool in the FA Cup this Saturday
- The tie will kick off at 12:45pm UK time
- Michael Oliver is the matchday official
Manchester City’s FA Cup clash this Saturday will be refereed by Michael Oliver, who has overseen three of the club’s matches this season.
The FA Cup quarter-finals are almost upon us and Manchester City will host Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium.
Of course, City are entering the fixture after defeating Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final, but there has been an international break since then.
Liverpool will be looking to take advantage of this disruption and for Man City, there is another factor which will be viewed as unfavourable.
Michael Oliver will referee Manchester City vs Liverpool in the FA Cup
Michael Oliver is the man calling the shots at the weekend and Man City have a poor record this season whenever this has been the case. Although there is always the chance this is just a coincidence.
Oliver has been in charge of three Man City matches, two of which ended in draws, while one resulted in a defeat. Most recently, he refereed Man City’s 1-1 draw with West Ham.
Also, Oliver the one with the whistle when City drew by the same scoreline against Chelsea, in a game where Josko Gvardiol broke his tibia. The other match Oliver refereed was the 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa back in October.
In these fixtures, the referee handed out a total of nine yellow cards to Pep Guardiola’s team and six to their opponents.
Oliver has refereed two Liverpool matches
Liverpool will be feeling better about Oliver being in charge on Saturday, considering he sent off Lesley Ugochukwu when they defeated Burnley in September.
Oliver also awarded the Reds a stoppage time penalty, which saw Mohamed Salah win them the game in the dying moments.
Having said that, he refereed Liverpool’s derby day defeat to Manchester United a month later, so there might not be all that much optimism after all.
