Alan Shearer makes Man Utd vs Fulham prediction as 'long afternoon' claim made

Alan Shearer has issued his prediction for Fulham’s FA Cup fifth round clash with Manchester United on Sunday. The Cottagers head to Old Trafford knowing they are just two wins away from Wembley, and they have a shot at winning the competition given the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham and many others already eliminated.

United have been poor so far this season, stuck in the bottom half of the Premier League, but they could be dangerous based on the fact they have limited avenues to European qualification next season.

The Red Devils need to win either the Europa League or FA Cup to get to Europe next season, and they surprised many by winning the FA Cup last season to sneak into the Europa League after missing out through the Premier League.

Fulham will have to be aware of that, and they did lose at home to Ruben Amorim’s men as recently as January. Since then, though, Fulham have won four of their last five games, beating Wolves last time out, and they will head to Old Trafford with plenty of confidence.

Ahead of the game, Alan Shearer has predicted which of the two teams will come out on top. "This is a tough one to call," Shearer wrote for Metro. "I’ll be there at Old Trafford doing co-commentary live on the BBC.

"I watched the Man Utd game for the first-half against Ipswich and once again they were all over the place. This game is a tough one to call. It will be a long afternoon – I’m not impressed with Man United, they’re in a really tough situation at the moment, so I’m going to go for an away win."

What Silva has said

Silva said in his pre-match press conference: “We really like the competition,” said Silva in his pre-match press conference. “It doesn’t matter against who, we have been able to be really serious with the competition. When we played against Watford and then the second game against Wigan, the players were really serious in their approach because we respect and love the competition.

“Of course, when you play against Manchester United, the noise is going to be different around the game, but this is the only difference, believe me. Our ambition in this competition is really big and we want to compete to be in the next round. It’s good when I feel, as a manager, that this ambition in the FA Cup can through all the squad.

“We have to go game by game and step by step. We are really far from the last game in this competition. What we want is to focus on one game, which can be decided in 90 minutes, 120 or even by a penalty shootout. We have to be ready for everything the game can demand from ourselves. I have to be honest and not naïve, but we are not the favourites in the competition at all. But we want to look at the competition as an opportunity to do something special.”

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