Manchester City striker Omar Marmoush was the match winner on Saturday night as they beat Newcastle 3-1 in the FA Cup
17:00, 09 Mar 2026
Pep Guardiola could not hide his delight on Saturday night as Manchester City progressed to the FA Cup quarter finals. Despite going behind early on to Newcastle, City rallied and were deserving winners.
After the game, Eddie Howe insisted the Blues were on their way back to their best. A huge compliment, particularly as City were without their talisman. Erling Haaland was rightly rested and Omar Marmoush replaced him.
The Egypt international repaid Guardiola’s faith with a match-winning brace that earned him praise from the boss. “He’s a top striker and the finishing, especially our second goal and our third is his biggest quality. He has to improve in small spaces and his first control but he deserved it.”
The unfortunate thing for Marmoush is he will almost certainly lose his place to Haaland on Wednesday night for the trip to Real Madrid. The Norwegian was rested specifically with the Champions League in mind.
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However, that does not mean Marmoush’s efforts were in vain. MEN Sport has looked at the 27-year-old’s performance at St James’ Park and spotted three ways he can offer City a different threat without Haaland.
Pressing
Haaland is an exceptional athlete but there are some things City sacrifice to have a goalscorer of his quality on the pitch. One of those can be pressing from the front. Guardiola once said he loved it when Haaland ‘presses like an animal,’ and while that is in his repertoire, it is not a constant in his game.
What was impressive about Marmoush was how quickly he closed down the Newcastle defence throughout the match. In the second half, he did exceptionally to win the ball from Malick Thiaw to spark an opportunity for Jeremy Doku to cross.
Finding pockets
Considering how good he is, it is no surprise Haaland sees scoring goals as ‘easy’. In a recent interview, the striker admitted he was inspired by Leicester City icon Jamie Vardy when he was growing up.
Vardy, much like Haaland, loves to play off the last man and use his pace to score. This is a trait Haaland adopted and nobody can argue with its effectiveness.
Interestingly, Marmoush showed for his second and City’s third, how he can offer something entirely different. Instead of looking for Matheus Nunes to play the through ball, the striker held back to allow himself a pocket of space on the edge of the box to fire past Aaron Ramsdale.
It was a smart decision as Newcastle’s defenders frantically regathered their shape. He still had a lot to do, but that difference to Haaland can give opposition teams a major headache.
Invisible man
When a centre-back sees he will be coming up against Haaland, they know instantly he will be their sole focus. As we saw at the Etihad against Newcastle last month, Dan Burn’s job was to effectively wrestle with Haaland and stop him from scoring.
It worked but opened up space for other players and, ultimately, City won. Haaland plays a selfless role in that respect and that can be forgotten.
What was striking about Saturday night was how often defenders were not man marking Marmoush. He became the invisible man just gliding under the radar before popping up to score.
His first was a prime example. By the time the ball reached him at the back post, Newcastle’s players were not alert to the danger and Marmoush was free to fire in.
Marmoush will not be the centre-forward at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night. But, Guardiola will be delighted the striker has added another dimension to an already stacked attack.
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