Manchester City striker Omar Marmoush was the match winner on Saturday night as they beat Newcastle 3-1 in the FA Cup

17:00, 09 Mar 2026

Pep Guardiola could not hide his delight on Saturday night as Manchester City progressed to the FA Cup quarter finals. Despite going behind early on to Newcastle, City rallied and were deserving winners.

After the game, Eddie Howe insisted the Blues were on their way back to their best. A huge compliment, particularly as City were without their talisman. Erling Haaland was rightly rested and Omar Marmoush replaced him.

The Egypt international repaid Guardiola’s faith with a match-winning brace that earned him praise from the boss. “He’s a top striker and the finishing, especially our second goal and our third is his biggest quality. He has to improve in small spaces and his first control but he deserved it.”

The unfortunate thing for Marmoush is he will almost certainly lose his place to Haaland on Wednesday night for the trip to Real Madrid. The Norwegian was rested specifically with the Champions League in mind.

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However, that does not mean Marmoush’s efforts were in vain. MEN Sport has looked at the 27-year-old’s performance at St James’ Park and spotted three ways he can offer City a different threat without Haaland.

Pressing

Haaland is an exceptional athlete but there are some things City sacrifice to have a goalscorer of his quality on the pitch. One of those can be pressing from the front. Guardiola once said he loved it when Haaland ‘presses like an animal,’ and while that is in his repertoire, it is not a constant in his game.

What was impressive about Marmoush was how quickly he closed down the Newcastle defence throughout the match. In the second half, he did exceptionally to win the ball from Malick Thiaw to spark an opportunity for Jeremy Doku to cross.

Finding pockets

Considering how good he is, it is no surprise Haaland sees scoring goals as ‘easy’. In a recent interview, the striker admitted he was inspired by Leicester City icon Jamie Vardy when he was growing up.

Vardy, much like Haaland, loves to play off the last man and use his pace to score. This is a trait Haaland adopted and nobody can argue with its effectiveness.

Interestingly, Marmoush showed for his second and City’s third, how he can offer something entirely different. Instead of looking for Matheus Nunes to play the through ball, the striker held back to allow himself a pocket of space on the edge of the box to fire past Aaron Ramsdale.

It was a smart decision as Newcastle’s defenders frantically regathered their shape. He still had a lot to do, but that difference to Haaland can give opposition teams a major headache.

Invisible man

When a centre-back sees he will be coming up against Haaland, they know instantly he will be their sole focus. As we saw at the Etihad against Newcastle last month, Dan Burn’s job was to effectively wrestle with Haaland and stop him from scoring.

It worked but opened up space for other players and, ultimately, City won. Haaland plays a selfless role in that respect and that can be forgotten.

What was striking about Saturday night was how often defenders were not man marking Marmoush. He became the invisible man just gliding under the radar before popping up to score.

His first was a prime example. By the time the ball reached him at the back post, Newcastle’s players were not alert to the danger and Marmoush was free to fire in.

Marmoush will not be the centre-forward at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night. But, Guardiola will be delighted the striker has added another dimension to an already stacked attack.

Manchester City came back to beat Newcastle 3-1 in the FA Cup despite 10 changes from Pep Guardiola as the fans had another top night at St James’ Park

22:10, 07 Mar 2026

Omar Marmoush punched the air, roaring his delight. Ten metres away in the Manchester City dugout, Pep Guardiola had his hands above his head clapping what he had just seen.

It wasn’t the third goal of the night that put the Blues ahead for the first time but a successful tackle, Marmoush racing back to dispossess the speedy Will Osula so that City could get the ball back and attack again. Having nearly been out of this FA Cup tie in the first 20 minutes with a Harvey Barnes goal the least that Newcastle deserved, City somehow fought back.

Never mind a game of two halves, this was a half of two halves. From looking vulnerable every time they tried to play out from the back and getting overrun by a home side that looked intent on making up for their Carabao Cup semi-final defeat, City wrestled control of the game away from Newcastle and played themselves level.

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It came in slightly comical fashion, Savinho still as a statue as Jeremy Doku’s cross hit him in the six-yard box and rolled over the line with all the agonising slowness of Rayan Cherki’s pea-roller in injury time at Anfield, yet Savinho had earned it. On his first start since injury on New Year’s Day, the winger that can frustrate fans so often was instrumental in getting City going.

Tijjani Reijnders missed too many chances and Marmoush hadn’t really been in the game when he made that challenge just before half-time but the spirit said a lot. City could have easily not fancied it, with Guardiola making 10 changes ahead of Real Madrid and nobody expecting this team to still be in contention for four trophies.

But, after a shellshocked start, a group of City players trying to work their way back into form turned the game on its head and completely dismantled Newcastle. Marmoush fired in from close range at the start of the second half and then smashed one in from outside the box on the hour mark to complete the comeback.

The home side are tired physically and mentally – they probably would have liked to make as many changes as City did and by the time their impact subs came on they were two goals behind. But this still stood as one of the toughest draws Guardiola’s side could have had, and to make more changes for it than Mikel Arteta made for Arsenal’s trip to Mansfield shows that this squad has strength as well as spirit.

Guardiola is now one game away from extending his astonishing record and making Wembley in nine of his 10 seasons in the FA Cup – he will have to curb his temper if he wants to be in the dugout for the quarter after racking up another yellow card – while City have put the Forest disappointment behind them in the best possible way.

With Marmoush scoring two as Erling Haaland rested up at home and Rodri, Ruben Dias, Marc Guehi and Bernardo Silva sitting it out on the bench, City head to Madrid full of confidence. They will just wish they could play Newcastle every week.

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Manchester City picked up a major victory on Saturday night to keep the pressure firmly on Arsenal in the title race

16:59, 23 Feb 2026

Manchester City showed a different side to their game on Saturday as they beat Newcastle United and kept pace with Arsenal. The Blues were steely in defence as Eddie Howe’s team pushed for an equaliser.

City may have been fortunate to see Dan Burn’s goal chalked off but they deserved the three points. It was not only Rayan Ait-Nouri, Matheus Nunes, Ruben Dias, Marc Guehi and, later, Abdukodir Khusanov defending, it was a team effort. With this in mind, MEN Sport has taken a look at four defensive tactics City used to win the game.

Erling Haaland

It speaks volumes that Haaland was singled out by Pep Guardiola for his defensive work, rather than his offensive play. “I’m not a big fan to put Erling to defend, but he helped us, and I know after that how the people hug him and celebrate him and say they’re grateful to help us because Newcastle allowed us to do that,” the City boss said.

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The Norwegian joined the defence for set pieces to deal with the aerial threats of Burn, Nick Woltemade and Malick Thiaw. And he showed the same intensity in this task as he does in the opposition box.

At one stage, you could see Haaland bouncing from side to side as he anticipated the cross coming in. The striker showed he is more than just a source of goals and silenced those who thought otherwise.

Duo helping

City don’t just have Haaland helping their defence, Omar Marmoush and Antoine Semenyo also joined the effort. While neither man can clear an aerial delivery like Haaland, they both worked hard to keep the lead intact.

Both forwards were quick to track back and follow the wingers when Newcastle broke away. This can often go unnoticed but the duo’s pace halted some promising counters and allowed the defence to recover their line.

The one time they didn’t track back quick enough, Anthony Gordon forced a good save from Gianluigi Donnarumma so it’s clear how important defending from the front is.

Vintage Rodri

There’s a reason City have been weaker when Rodri is out of the team. He provides protection to the defence unlike anyone else in this squad.

We have associated the Spaniard with his brilliant passing range and crunching tackles but on Saturday, his aerial ability started the move for Nico O’Reilly’s opener. He won the header from Newcastle’s long ball which sparked the City counter.

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He may go about his work unassumingly but Rodri is the best defensive midfielder in the world because he can do everything. On Saturday, he used one of the strings on his bow to devastating effect.

Bernardo’s work rate

Guardiola will be gutted when Bernardo Silva leaves because there are few players who have his engine. In the second half, the captain could be found in both boxes helping his team.

In the defensive third, he became the fifth body if Rodri was caught further up the pitch. Bernardo won’t class himself as an excellent defender, but his presence in the box suffocated options – as shown when Anthony Elanga looked up to find nobody free in the area thanks to Bernardo.

This hesitation allowed Ait-Nouri to barge Elanga out of play. It was not an evening when Bernardo stole the show up front but his work rate remains a huge asset for the Blues.

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