Can Brighton keep Guardiola’s Manchester City quiet at Wembley?

Wembley Stadium is set to host Brighton and Hove Albion and current Premier League champions Manchester City in the semi-final of the FA Cup. As Man City continue to fight on all fronts, they will surely have an eye on the first leg of the Champions League quarter final tie with Tottenham this coming Tuesday, whilst also looking to progress to another FA Cup final.

Brighton meanwhile are busy establishing themselves as a solid Premier League outfit under the shrewd management of Chris Hughton, and their fans will no doubt be looking forward to a trip to Wembley. This game is testament to a forward-thinking club who have built a fantastic infrastructure as they look to stabilise themselves at the top level.

How the game will shape up

Even the most casual observer would foresee this game in all likeliness resembling an attack vs defence exercise. Manchester City will hoard the ball and look to grind down an obdurate opponent.

Brighton will look to have numbers behind the ball, protect their goal and look for the odd counter-attack without committing too many players forward at any given time. Set pieces could be crucial if they are to get something from the game, as well as the possibility of taking City all the way to penalty kicks.

The problem Brighton face is that even a well constructed and executed game plan can still be ruthlessly exposed by the sheer abundance of quality City possess, organised so flawlessly by Pep Guardiola.

In the fixture between the two sides last September, City strolled to a 2-0 win, a game which involved an interesting deployment of Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Tactical themes to look out for

Whilst the general flow of the game isn’t in doubt, there will be some interesting themes to look out for in this semi-final clash.

These will be the way in which Brighton set themselves up to defend, how they construct their counter-attacks, and how Manchester City will look to break down the deep block using their positional play.

How Brighton set up

In the fixture between the two sides earlier this season, Brighton set up in a 4-5-1 low and compact block, and it is likely that Hughton will opt for the same shape at Wembley.

The trade off of this system is that with both Brighton wingers being pinned back in the five across midfield, the lone striker has an almost impossible job of preventing City making easy progress in the buildup. It is very much inviting pressure, and this is very difficult to maintain against a team so adept at manipulating the opposition as City are.

Hughton may opt for a 4-4-2 low block and use two forwards to screen the midfield and prevent easy progression for City in the build up, but this would open up the opportunity for City’s excellent switches of play to expose the opposite flank, and enable the likes of Leroy Sané to play one-on-one against a full-back.