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The Impossible Task?

Well, they actually say that nothing is impossible but in football terms this is one of those things that is close to it, or at least it is in the eyes of many as the Swans prepare to welcome Man City to the Liberty in the FA Cup quarter final this evening.

Man City retain their dream of winning four trophies this season. They already have the Carabao Cup in their trophy cabinet, lead the Premier League, face Spurs in the last eight of the Champions League and are one win from Wembley against us this evening.

But we should remember that last year they harboured the same dream of winning four competitions but that dream was ended with an away FA Cup tie against a side given little to no hope when Wigan beat them 1-0 so the statement is right that nothing is impossible.

As you would expect they come into this game as overwhelming favourites to progress into the last four and there won't be many of a near capacity Liberty crowd that will expect anything different tonight but when there are two teams involved in a game then there is always that chance that we could find ourselves at Wembley on the first weekend in April.

The Planet Swans match preview is bought to you in conjunction with the Swans official sponsors BetUK - check their odds for this game and others by clicking here .

This is the second successive season we have progressed to this stage of the competition and the one thing we should ensure is that we at least give it more of a fight than we did last year. The pathetic capitulation against Spurs in the last eight last season remains for me one of the real downer moments of a pretty depressing last two months of last season. As fans we had waited 50 years to get that far in the competition, to give it away without trying was unforgivable and backfired on Carvalhal more than I think he ever thought at the time. The Swans never recovered and our Premier League place was surrendered just as meekly.

Spurs 3-0 win was probably easier than the scoreline suggested as they had 75% possession and 25 shots at goal and a similar statistical output is expected this afternoon for a side that can strike as much as 80% possession against Premier League opponents.

As Graham Potter said "We face a huge challenge, a brilliant challenge for the players because you get to test yourself against the best, and we have to try.

"That's how it is, it is a one-off game. Over a two-legged tie or more than that, you've got no chance pretty much, because the quality is so high.

"But in a one-off match anything can happen and we will try to manufacture something from that."

For me the Swans simply have nothing to lose. We are not expected to win and we probably won't. But we should approach it with a view that we can create the biggest shock of the season and if we are to go down then let's go down fighting.

We should remember that Wigan faced no chance last season and pulled the shock off so we know it can be done and that has to be the view that we take.

Oli McBurnie has been struggling with illness so is unlikely to start but could still be used from the bench.

Cameron Carter-Vickers should have shaken off a knock but Kyle Naughton is a doubt with a groin/hamstring issue.

Manchester City will be without defender John Stones, who has not yet fully recovered from a groin strain.

Kevin de Bruyne and Vincent Kompany, who missed Tuesday's Champions League win, are also still sidelined.

So onto the three bets to watch

1. Nothing is impossible but Man City are 2/25 to win the game. Swans are 18/1. That's a two horse race and despite the difference in class, we are Swansea fans and will take a punt on us to win. And if we do an 18/1 return will feel all the sweeter.

2. The bookies similarly don't even fancy us to grab a goal as you would expect. With Oli likely to start from the bench, our best chance of a goal for me is Conor Roberts who gets into the right positions often. If he can be there just once and finish then odds of 22/1 to score any time seem to have value.

3. If you want to be the pessimist then the bookies believe it is more likely to see Man City win 6-0 then us to win at all. At odds of 15/1 that's not really value but it would allow you to drown your sorrows in the pub later this evening knowing that someone else paid for your hangover. Ah, it's only a game after all...

The Planet Swans match preview is bought to you in conjunction with the Swans official sponsors BetUK - check their odds for this game and others by clicking here .

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