Cardiff City v Manchester City (Historical First Home Game)!

Manager Malky Mackay is relishing taking on one of the Premier League title favourites on Sunday, when Manchester City become Cardiff City's first 2013-14 season visitors.

The Bluebirds lost their opener 2-0 at West Ham and the Blues hammered Newcastle United 4-0 under new boss Manuel Pellegrini.

Mackay said: "You see the way that team played, they are warming to their new manager quite quickly, "So we realise the task in hand."

I have no doubt the way our fans will be this season in terms of their ferocity, support and passion

Malky Mackay, Cardiff City manager

Having dominated the 2012-13 Championship on their way to the top flight and not lost at home since February of last season, Mackay hopes home fans will be as influential this time around.

He said: "We have got to try and make our stadium a fortress.

"We have to make sure that it is a tough ask for any team that comes down to our stadium.

"I have no doubt the way our fans will be this season in terms of their ferocity, support and passion for our club and the way our stadium is, it will lend itself to noise, like we had last season.

"We will have tough teams coming, top teams coming here and it will be a test for us, but we are relishing that."

Mackay's keen interest in how Pellegrini's side fared against Newcastle, who had Steven Taylor sent off as half-time approached, led him to describe their display as "excellent".

The Scot was particularly impressed with the strength his Chilean managerial counterpart had to call on from the bench.

"After 20 minutes it was slightly slanted because of the sending off and they played a slightly different formation obviously, but at the same time, the players playing out there were excellent," Mackay said.

"I look at the players they have coming off the bench and the impact they have as well. They are a top team."

Cardiff's Denmark striker recruit Andreas Cornelius could make his debut after overcoming an ankle injury.

Liz Taylor will be back from suspension and could return to left-back at teenager Declan John's expense.

 

I've been going down Ninian Park / CCS off and on since 1969 this will be the first time I will see my beloved Bluebirds in the top league.

To me it's brilliant that it will be against a top 3 team with players from all around the globe a far cry from my first home game.

Win, lose or draw it will be a new chapter in the history of Cardiff City and I know how lucky I am to be a small part of that history.

If you are decked in Blue, Red, Black or Yellow now is the time to forget our differences and get behind the team and show the fire and passion us Cardiff fans have.

 

Cardiff striker Andreas Cornelius could make his Premier League debut after recovering from an ankle injury.
Left-back Andrew Taylor is available after suspension.

City are without influential captain Vincent Kompany, who suffered a groin injury against Newcastle on Monday.

Matija Nastasic may be pressed into action ahead of schedule after an ankle injury, while summer signing Stevan Jovetic has overcome the hamstring problem that kept him out last weekend.

This fixture throws up the only two managers who went in to the season having never managed in the Premier League before. They have so far spent over £120m between them this summer, but have contrasting aspirations and pressures for the remaining 37 games of the campaign.

Manuel Pellegrini couldn't really have scripted a better start to life in charge of Manchester City. Their win over Newcastle was comfortable, clinical and also entertaining - but after over 25 years in management he is experienced enough to know tougher challenges lie ahead.

Mark Lawrenson

"I am sure there will be a cracking atmosphere for Cardiff's first home Premier League game, but even that will not be enough to help Malky Mackay's side. Manchester City have got some top-class players and I don't think they will be intimidated. In fact, they will probably enjoy it."

This match potentially could be one of them. Malky Mackay will rightly be a proud man when he becomes the first man to take charge of a Cardiff City home game in the top flight for 51 years.

The last one, back in 1962, saw a 3-0 victory over a West Ham team including Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters. Deep down he'll be dreaming of a similar upset. There will be a fantastic atmosphere to urge his team on for a fixture their fans were still dreaming about when they left Ninian Park five seasons ago.

If they are to be playing the likes of Manchester City again next season, then their home form will have to be strong. As if they needed it, their opening day defeat at West Ham was a reminder of the step up in quality on show.

City will hope to quieten the crowd as quickly as possible and will realise an away game at a newly-promoted team early on is often a tricky one. It will be a different type of experience for some of their new faces.

It will be fascinating to see how they really gel over the coming months, and just how different the team is to the one that finished 11 points adrift of neighbours United last season. For starters, Pellegrini will settle for another three points.

Head-to-head

The last time the clubs met, then-Third Division strugglers Cardiff pulled off a shock 1-0 win over Premier League City at Ninian Park in the FA Cup fourth round in 1994. Nathan Blake scored the winner and Mark Grew saved a penalty from Keith Curle.

Their last league fixture was in the second tier in March 1985, a 2-2 draw at Maine Road.

The most common result of any meeting between the two clubs is a draw - 20 of their 47 matches have ended level, while City have won 19 and Cardiff eight.

Cardiff City

Cardiff are without a win in five league matches. They drew their final four matches of the 2012-13 Championship season.

But they have not lost at home since a 2-0 Championship defeat to Brighton in February.

Malky Mackay's side won a club record 10 successive home league matches from the start of last season.

Craig Bellamy has now played for seven Premier League teams, a feat matched by Andy Cole, Tal Ben Haim and Wayne Routledge. Only Marcus Bent (8) has played for more.

Manchester City

Against Newcastle on Monday, City completed 90% of their passes - the best ratio in the division in the opening round of fixtures.

Sergio Aguero has scored 24 of his 36 Premier League goals at the Etihad Stadium. City are unbeaten in all 27 Premier League matches in which he has scored (W25, D2).

David Silva's 15th Premier League goal - in the win over Newcastle - was the first he has scored in the English top flight with his head.

Yaya Toure has become the fifth Ivorian to play 100 Premier League matches (after Kolo Toure, Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou and Emmanuel Eboue).

 

Had a few beers down bay with a few mancs ....good lads and not a big headed bunch like UTD as they remember the hard times like us ,......

 

Yeh I always got that impression about City fans as well. Really showed how much it meant for them to win the title, they were all crying - even grown men. Pretty dramatic finish mind you, think I'd be in tears. Never see that at United.

 

United fans have not time for tears, they got to get back to London.

 

Sparkey, kick off 4 pm today, don't want you missing it pal.
Didn't get much sleep last night, could use some extra winks....tell us once again about the time you missed the game...

 

Nervous now, C'mon city. Got the stream and a glass of the cold stuff. Do us proud in the stadium, Bluebirds!!

 

Do you need a stream in Germany Taff ?

Is sky sports not on in the pubs ?

 

Blue, there is Skysports but Bundesleague, the are a few places that have the premier league but I decided to watch from home today due to the crappy weather.

 

The Girls have gone to a bbq but there's no way I'm leaving the sofa/fridge for a while

 

Good first half, could quite easily have been ahead.

 

Yeah, Campbell doing a lot of running and 2 iffy offside decisions...

 

Not watching the game, I'm stuck in work listening to it on CC Player. Definitely sound like at least one of his runs he was on side.

 

drat

 

Quality goal, Marshall had no chance.

 

Ggggggggggunnnnnnarrrrsssssoooooonnnnnnn

 

Sounds like a good game to watch.

 

If you manage to play like this for the majority of the season you'll finish nowehere near the bottom three

 

Pretty good game but we're tiring a bit now. No subs yet.
Connolly having a better game this week but still not the solution.