On matchday 22, fans will witness Ipswich Town take on Manchester City FC in a match that promises to be exciting.
Both teams are now far apart thanks to the significant investment that Manchester City enjoyed as a result of maintaining their place in the top flight when Ipswich Town could not.
Until their loss in the reverse fixture, the Cityzens were trailing the Tractor Boys 23 to 28 with 15 draws in between them. Now, it is only four wins that Pep Guardiola’s side need to catch up to Kieran McKenna’s team, which also depends on how long both teams can remain in the same level of England’s football pyramid.
Ipswich Town were not cut any slack upon returning to the Premier League after two decades. First, they faced Liverpool and next was Manchester City, who thrashed them 4-1 to ensure that they opened a league season with two defeats for the first time since 2006/07.
At the time, Manchester City looked like the team that won the Premier League four seasons in a row that they were coming into the 2024/25 season. Erling Haaland also looked like the striker who won two straight Premier League golden shoe awards for his scoring prowess. Now, Ipswich will go into their game in matchday 22 with a little more hope than they did on matchday 2 because of the struggles that Manchester City have faced in the ongoing season.
They will hope to channel the same energy which they had when they took the lead at the Etihad through summer recruit Sammie Szmodics. The Ireland international was played through on goal and timed his run brilliantly to latch on to the ball, which he squeezed through the legs of Manchester City’s Brazilian goalkeeper Ederson.
Unfortunately, they could not hold the lead for long as Haaland scored the first of his three goals on the day from the penalty spot after defender Leif Davis felled Savinho in their penalty area.
That opened the floodgates as in a matter of moments, Kevin De Bruyne got Manchester City’s second. Ipswich goalkeeper Arijanet Muric was caught in possession and robbed of the ball on the edge of his own area, allowing the Belgian midfielder to finish into an empty net.
Ipswich were still trying to collect themselves to muster a response when suddenly, they were down by three. De Bruyne fed Haaland for his second, leaving McKenna’s side shell-shocked. The crossbar prevented Ipswich from suffering a heavier defeat in the first half, stopping Rico Lewis and another effort from De Bruyne.
It did not stop Haaland from getting his hat trick, though, but Ipswich can hold their heads high for the game they played in the second half. Muric stopped an effort from Haaland and the Ipswich defence did well to contain other attacks from their hosts.
It was in the dying moments of the game that the Norwegian striker found some space to score his third goal to add another match ball to his growing collection. It was City’s 18th win from their last 19 Premier League games against newly-promoted opposition.
McKenna will work on strengthening the qualities that helped his team stave off Man City for most of the second half but it will be a tough ask from the club’s fans to the Tractor Boys, many of who are novices in England’s top flight.
Read on for matchday ticket information, prediction on the starting XIs of both teams, team news and scoreline predictions for the game.
Match tickets
Portman Road will welcome the defending champions of the Premier League for the first time in over 20 years. Usually, this would not be a term used to describe Manchester City but things have changed and the Tractor Boys are no match for the Cityzens anymore. This match is slated for 19 January 2025 at 5:30 PM UK time.
Ipswich Town vs Manchester City tickets are live on the websites of both clubs—Ipswich Town and Manchester City. They will also be carried by their partner platforms and can be gotten through their other official channels and affiliates, offline and online.
Ticketing in European football is done via ballots, which require willing purchasers to indicate their intent early to be entered into the ballots. Fans will have to be registered officially on either club’s websites to be entered, however.
Non-registered fans and non-local fans or either club can avoid the registration process for this match by visiting ticket resale websites to secure their seats at the game. On these sites, fans connect with each other to exchange Ipswich Town tickets for money or other tickets, as such.
Team news
Manchester City, at the time of writing this feature, are free of every squad injury problem bar the one suffered by Rodrigo Hernandez Cascante, known by the mononym Rodrigo or Rodri. The holding midfielder is the best in the world and is near-irreplaceable as the Cityzens have come to discover, which is why Guardiola has used all his midfielders in that position to little effect.
He will continue to do so as Rodri’s return date is still further down the line and Ipswich will count themselves lucky not to be facing off against a full-strength Manchester City with the Premier League’s only Ballon d’Or winner since Manchester United legend Cristiano Ronaldo won it in 2008.
Their hosts also have a full-strength squad ready for the fixture, with only Chiedozie Ogbene still out of commission. Like Rodri, he is expected to miss the rest of the season with his earliest return date being May. It is uncertain if he will play again in 2024/25, which means that McKenna will be unable to unleash one of his choice signings on Man City this season (Ogbene came after the Tractor Boys had lost to City in August).
Line-ups
Ipswich Town faced Manchester City at the Etihad on matchday 2 of the 2024/25 Premier League season with a 5-4-1 set-up that was both attacking and defensive. We predict that they will go with the same formation, only with a few personnel changes.
Here are our predictions for both teams’ starting XIs.
Ipswich Town: Muric; Davis, Greaves, O’Shea, Tuanzebe, Johnson; Szmodics, Cajuste, Morsy, Hutchinson; Delap.
Manchester City: Ederson; Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol; Lewis, Kovacic; Savinho, Silva, De Bruyne, Doku; Haaland.
Prediction
Manchester City are the overwhelming favourite to win this matchday 22 game though their form—at the time of writing this prediction—suggests otherwise.
However, we are going to stick with the popular opinion that the reigning, defending Premier League champions will defeat the minnows from the EFL Championship for a second time since they stepped up to play ball with the big guns of English football.
It has been over 20 years since both teams were last on par and Ipswich will need at least half a decade of consistency at the top—based on their current trajectory—to start tilting opinion towards them whenever they have to face Manchester City. The Cityzens will win this just as they did in the reverse fixture, and overwhelmingly too.
Ipswich Town 1 – 4 Manchester City
Camila