Clough: 'Pep's City tougher than Fergie's Utd'

At the time, Conference side Burton held Sir Alex Ferguson's side to a goalless draw at home in the FA Cup, earning a lucrative return tie at Old Trafford. However their manager thinks that 13 years on, the club's upcoming semi-final date with Pep Guardiola's Manchester City feels like a greater challenge. The Burton boss has said that the two-legged nature of the tie makes the meeting all the more daunting for his side, but he is keen to stress that they are looking to just enjoy it.

Ahead of the first leg of the tie on Wednesday night, Clough spoke to the media, and made comparisons between the respective draws against the Manchester clubs. He said: "I think this one [is more difficult] over two legs," Clough said. "I think the pitch is going to be a bit better this time around, if anybody remembers the pitch against Manchester United! But we're facing similar sorts of tasks. When [Wayne] Rooney and [Cristiano] Ronaldo came on after 59 minutes here for Manchester United, it's a similar sort of prospect with the likes of the quality that Manchester City have."

 

January 8, 2019

Clough continued: "But away from home, it's a different thing. When they are on their own patch, as you saw against Liverpool, they are as good and as confident as anything.That's when they've come off a relatively poor period for them, they have lost a couple of matches recently and then they can still play like they did against Liverpool and keep the title race open. That says an awful lot about them."

The Burton boss was realistic of his side's chances ahead of the tie, stating: "Honestly, we are just looking forward to enjoying the experience. Nobody gives us much of a chance and rightly so but it's just about the players, everybody, talking about supporters, who have been following the club for 50-60 years never dreamt of us being in a League Cup semi-final. Let's all everybody as one go and enjoy it.