DM1ST
mirror.co.uk/sport WEDNESDAY 04.03.2020 DAILY MIRROR^47
ON A HIGH Rooney at United and DerbyDerby County v Man Utd
FA Cup 5th round, tomorrow, 7.45pmrooney all
set to stun
united pals
By JAmes Nursey
WAyNE ROONEy admits he will
always love Manchester United but is
aiming to inflict an FA Cup shock on
them tomorrow.
Manchester United’s record
goalscorer will captain Derby against
his old club in a fifth-round clash.
Rooney, 34, scored 253 goals in
559 games for United from 2004–
2017 after joining from Everton for
£27million.
And he is relishing coming up
against his former club again – after
losing in both games against them in
his season back at Everton when he
left Old Trafford in 2017.
“For me it is a big game playing
against my former team,” said the
former England captain, who is now
revelling in his midfield role for the
Rams. “They will be favourites.
“I captained Everton against them
and it is always strange when you play
against a former team, especially
when you have been there so long. Ilove the club and it is a team I want to
do well and win.
“But for this 90 minutes I want us
to win and to try and go through.
“I have visited Derby as a
Manchester United player in the FA
Cup before and know what it means
to the fans and staff here.
“It is for us as players to go on the
pitch to try and get a good result.
“But it is a big challenge for us
playing against a very good team.”
Rooney has four goals in 14 starts
for the Rams since arriving in
January from MLS side DC United on
an 18-month contract worth £100,000
a week. During his 13 years at United
he won the Premier League five
times, the Champions League, FA Cup
and three League Cups.
“My time there was great,” he
added. “We won the Premier League
and Champions League and
everything really. To win the FA Cup
as captain was a huge honour.
“We had some low moments
too, but I enjoyed it and loved
working every day at the club and
will always look back on it with fond
memories.”H erO Rooney celebrates goal for RamsCarabao what?
it’s all
about
the fa
Cup
now!
Pep tells City stars to forget Wembley triumph and concentrate on next trophy
PEP GUARDIOLA wants
his Manchester City
players to shower him
with more success – after
telling them to forget
their Carabao Cup
triumph.
Sunday’s 2-1 win over
Aston Villa at Wembley was
the third year in a row City
have lifted the League
Cup.
They have now
claimed eight of the
last nine domestic
trophies, with
G u a r d i o l a
(right) and hislast-16 tie and are big favour-
ites to progress to the FA
Cup quarter-finals tonight.
Although Guardiola has
his sights set on another
treble, he claimed silverware
is not the only
way of judging if
a season has
been a success.
“I see if players
were better than
last season, the
way we play, how
we react in bad
moments,” added
Guardiola. “It’s
not just ‘winning
the title is good,
not winning the
title is bad’.”most difficult one and
Roberto and his people and
players did it. Then other
people came after them and
continued the process.”
Despite relinquishing the
title to Liverpool
and UEFA
handing them a
two-year Euro-
pean ban, City
can still end a
difficult season
on a high with
three trophies.
City lead Real
Madrid 2-1,
heading into the
second leg of
their Champi-
ons Leaguenice what we’ve done in that
competition in the last three
years, but in this game we
have another final.
“Playing away in the FA
Cup is always difficult
because of how important
this competition is in this
country.
“We can go through to the
quarter-finals and that’s
what we have to do.
“There’s been a lot of effort
behind this and it started
more than a decade ago.
“The most important
thing was winning the league
when Roberto Mancini was
here, it changed the
mentality of the club.
“The first one is always theplayers celebrating on the
Wembley turf and in the
dressing room.
But, as soon as they had
showered and changed,
Guardiola said the collective
focus immediately switched
to tonight’s FA Cup fifth-
round tie at Sheffield
Wednesday.
“I learned in big clubs I
was at before – and with
their history – that
when they win a
trophy they go and
take a shower and
they’re thinking in
that moment
about the next
one,” said
Guardiola. “It’sBy dAvId mcdONNell
@DiscoMirror6/1
Man City to
win 3-0Monk: if you think we can’t win, you shouldn’t be in this sport
their players, quality of their play,
quality of their manager and how
they set up to play.
“That’s the challenge ahead
of us and we need to rise to
that. There’s no fear in any of
that. This is why you play,
this is why you manage.
“All the odds are against
us, we have to be at our very
best and have a bit of luck – but
who says we can’t do that?”to make it to the next round. It
can happen. Of course, it needs a
lot for that to happen. But if you
don’t believe in that, you shouldn’t
be in professional sport, certainly
not in football.”
Monk (right) claims Wednesday
must play without fear, despite
City being a world-class team.
“Everything you want from a
football team makes them
formidable,” he said. “Quality ofOwls have won just one of their
last nine Championship games,
yet Monk insists they must believe
they can shock City.
“I’ve got a feeling the lads will
give their all in this game,” said
the Wednesday boss.
“They’ve earned the right to
play against this type of team,
they’ve earned the right to be in
this round and we want to try –
even though it’s a small chance –GARRy MONK claims his Sheffield
Wednesday players should pack in
football if they do not believe they
can upset Manchester City.
They are huge underdogs
against Pep Guardiola’s side and
City’s latest League Cup triumph
was the 19th straight domestic
cup tie they have won since
February 2018. By contrast, theBy dAvId ANdersONTV TIMES: Live on BBC 1
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