National cups are something special for many teams and supporters. Today's match will decide whether it's Cliftonville or Linfield that keep their silverware dream alive.
One slightly interesting match fact is that this game is played on artifical turf and that the visiting Linfield have a different surface at their stadium (grass). The impact of this is hard to measure exactly, but the visitors stats on artifical turf is 1-2-3 (win-draw-loss) from six matches.
These teams are so close in distance that this match is special, a derby with local pride the main prize.
It's no vacation for neither Cliftonville nor Linfield as both were in action only a few days ago. Expect some tired legs on the pitch and/or possibly some changes to the lineups.
Cliftonville form and stats
3 victories, 1 draw and 0 defeats. That’s what Cliftonville have to build on here at Solitude in the Premiership.
The Cliftonville goalkeeper is looking to record 90 more "clean sheet" minutes as his team have now played 333 minutes without conceding a goal in the Premiership.
The home followers saw a 0-0 draw versus Crusaders last time out and are looking for a win here.
Before that game, the 4-0 home victory against Newry City AFC.The manager McLaughlin will start preparations for the next game as soon this is finished, as the hosts are going to Larne in only three days.
Cliftonville are showing their attacking force in their league home games this season, scoring more than 2,5 goals per game on average (11 goals in 4 games).
Linfield form and stats
The story so far for the visiting team on their Premiership travels is 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats.
The Linfield goalkeeper is collecting clean sheets like a laundry worker. It's been 188 league minutes without conceding a goal, and counting.
It's another away game for the visitors, as they travelled to Coleraine in their previous outing. The match ended in a draw 0-0.
Preceding that game was the away Premiership victory against Dungannon Swifts with the score of 1-0.After this away game Linfield return home for a Premiership game against Glentoran. That game is only three sleeps after this.
Linfield has displayed an ability to score goals in away matches in the league this season, 10 goals from 6 games. It's not easy to score on Linfield as they have only conceded 5 goals from these away games.
Head 2 Head
Linfield have put together a streak of 6 consecutive matches without losing (3-3-0) when playing Cliftonville.Top Goalscorers
  R. Hale 7 goals | R. Curran 5 goals |  E. Vertainen 3 goals |
Cliftonville missing players
Linfield missing players
| Cliftonville | Linfield | ||||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 25 | 10 | Played | P | 16 | 25 | ||
| 13 | 5 | Won | W | 9 | 13 | ||
| 5 | 3 | Drew | D | 2 | 5 | ||
| 7 | 2 | Lost | L | 5 | 7 | ||
| 44 | 23 | Scored | S | 29 | 40 | ||
| 29 | 11 | Conceded | C | 23 | 28 | ||
| 84% | 70% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 94% | 88% | ||
| 76% | 70% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 75% | 72% | ||
| 64% | 70% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 69% | 52% | ||
| 32% | 60% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 31% | 24% | ||
| 20% | 40% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 12% | 8% | ||
| 52% | 40% | BTTS | BTTS | 50% | 40% | ||
| 40% | 50% | Clean Sheets | C S | 31% | 44% | ||
| 24% | 40% | Failed to Score | F T | 25% | 28% | ||
| 4.9 | 4.2 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 5.6 | 6.4 | ||
| 2.8 | 1.8 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 3.4 | 3.3 | ||
| 1.2 | 1.2 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 1.8 | 1.7 | ||
| 1 | 0 | Red cards | R C | 3 | 3 | ||
| 10.5 | 11 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 9 | 9.7 | ||
| 4.9 | 5.9 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 3.9 | 4.4 | ||
| 37% | 36% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 48% | 37% | ||
| 8.5 | 7.5 | Shots against (avg) | S A | 9.6 | 9.8 | ||
| 3.8 | 3.6 | Shots on Target against (avg) | S O | 4.2 | 3.9 | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Larne | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 10 | 20 |
| 2 | Glentoran | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 16 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 15 | 19 |
| 3 | Cliftonville | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 17 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 19 |
| 4 | Crusaders | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 19 | 12 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 17 |
| 5 | Coleraine | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 17 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 5 | 8 | 16 |
| 6 | Linfield | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 14 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 5 | 9 | 13 |
| 7 | Carrick Rangers | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 15 | 20 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 10 | -5 | 13 |
| 8 | Glenavon | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 15 | 14 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 9 |
| 9 | Ballymena United | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 15 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | -8 | 7 |
| 10 | Newry City AFC | 9 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 9 | 19 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 12 | -10 | 6 |
| 11 | Dungannon Swifts | 9 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 5 | 24 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 15 | -19 | 3 |
| 12 | Portadown | 9 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 19 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 10 | -16 | 1 |
