Man Utd 2-1 Reading Highlights
Venue: Old Trafford
Date: Monday, 18 February
Kick-off: 20:00 GMT
Head-to-head
• Manchester United have won 10 and lost just one of the 18 previous competitive matches against Reading, which includes a 4-3 win in this season’s Premier League visit to the Madjeski Stadium in December. Wayne Rooney got a brace, and Robin van Persie netted the winner.
• This is the eighth time they’ve been paired with each other in the FA Cup, with United holding a 6-1 lead.
• They last clashed at this fifth round stage in February 2007, when the Royals held United to a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford, before losing the replay by the odd goal in five.
Manchester United
• The most successful club in FA Cup history find themselves facing Premier League opposition for the seventh successive tie, and the 22nd in 27 FA Cup rounds.
• This is the only all-Premier League match-up in the fifth round.
• Sir Alex Ferguson’s treble-chasing outfit are in pursuit of a 12th FA Cup, but have not lifted the trophy since 2004, and have failed to reach the quarter-finals in three of the eight intervening seasons.
• United have won their last five FA Cup ties at Old Trafford, conceding just one goal in the process. They’ve lost to a fellow Premier League club on their own ground only once in nine years; 1-0 to Portsmouth in the sixth round in March 2008.
Reading
• Reading, the 1927 semi-finalists, are chasing their third quarter-final berth in four seasons.
• The Royals have claimed four Premier League scalps in the previous three seasons of FA Cup competition; Liverpool, Burnley, West Bromwich and Everton.
• They need to score three goals to take their all-time total in FA Cup history to 500.
