Manchester United vs Brighton & Hove Albion Preview: United and Seagulls meet in the FA Cup

Brighton head to Old Trafford tomorrow to take on Manchester United In the FA Cup.

Manchester United vs Brighton & Hove Albion Preview: United and Seagulls meet in the FA Cup
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By Adam Stenning

Brighton head to Old Trafford tomorrow night to take on Manchester United in the FA Cup Quarter-Finals. 

Brighton head into the game after their nine-match unbeaten run was ended with defeat at Goodison Park last weekend to Everton.

The Red Devils also head into the game looking to bounce back from their 2-1 defeat at home to Sevilla in the knockout stages of the Champions League.

Plenty of Cup history between the pair

Tomorrow night's game sees the two sides meet in the FA Cup once against. They met in the 1983 FA Cup final with Manchester United winning via a replay.

The last times the side met in the FA Cup was in January 1993 when again United came out on top with Ryan Giggs scoring the only goal.

Brighton will be looking to make it third time lucky and reach only their second semi-final of the FA Cup.

Team News

Brighton have a couple of injury concerns heading into the game with both their first choice central midfielder Dale Stephens and left-back Gaetan Bong both missing out due to injury.

Add to this that Anthony Knockaert is serving the first game of his three-match ban after being sent off in the defeat to Everton last weekend, it means the Seagulls will have to make a couple of changes.

The injuries and suspensions mean there will are likely to be starts for Markus Suttner, Beram Kayal and Solly March. The only other selection problem Chris Hughton has is who to start up front and the tough decision of picking between Glenn Murray, Jurgen Locadia and Leonardo Ulloa to start up top.

In the previous round, manager Chris Hughton has in previous rounds opted for two up top with both of Locadia and Ulloa scoring in the previous round.

Out of the three it will probably be either Murray or Locadia who start up top with Ulloa on the bench plus whichever of the other two strikers who does not start.

For United they have Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Daley Blind and Ander Herrera, Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo, who signed a new deal on Friday are all missing. 

Romelu Lukaku will be looking to continue his fine goal-scoring form in the FA Cup with him having scored 11 goals in his last ten appearances in the Cup.

One thing is for sure, both teams will go out there and give their all in the hope of reaching the Semi-Finals of the FA Cup and the chance to make an appearance at Wembley.

Match Day Stats

  1. United have been eliminated from three of their past four FA Cup quarter-finals.
  2. This is only Brighton's third FA Cup quarter-final appearance and their first since the 1985-86 campaign.
  3. Chris Hughton has managed four matches at Old Trafford in all competitions and lost all four without seeing his teams score a goal.