'I was Plymouth hero who lost a tooth in Liverpool shock - now I want to KO Man City'
Plymouth Argyle defender Nikola Katic is out to cause another FA Cup shock against Manchester City after helping Miron Muslic's side past Liverpool in the fourth round
Nikola Katic lost a tooth in Plymouth’s heroic FA Cup eclipse of Liverpool after a collision with his captain Adam Randell.
A member of Argyle’s groundstaff found it when he was raking over the pitch, reunited the gnasher with its owner and Katic’s dentist did the rest with a dab of luting cement.
Now comes the moment of tooth for the Green Army. Will Plymouth, fighting for survival in the Championship, come out all gums blazing again and cause another seismic upset in the fifth round at Manchester City?
Bosnia-Herzegovina defender Katic, who gave Liverpool’s front line less change than a fruit machine, laughed: “I’m happy that my tooth was found, and although the dentist fixed it back in my mouth, I’m not sure how long it’s going to last.
READ MORE: FA Cup winner decided as Man City and Man Utd bid to salvage their seasonsREAD MORE: FA Cup power rankings ahead of fifth round as Liverpool and Arsenal exits offer huge chance“But I would trade all my teeth for another win at City.”
Katic forced ITV to apologise for his technicolour language when he dropped the F-bomb in his live post-match interview after clipping the Liver Bird’s wings, but he observed: “I hear many people using that word in every sentence in Britain and I was really surprised that it created so much attention.
“I didn’t want to offend anyone - I was just emotional after an amazing win. And if it is such a bad word, why is it used a lot in the language here?”
Former England manager Graham Taylor once observed that he preferred his centre-backs to wear battle scars like badges of honour to show they were getting stuck in.
Katic agreed: “It’s pretty much like that - as a professional my job is to put my head in where it hurts and make sure our goal is protected.
“It is better to be a winner with some teeth missing than to lose with a perfect smile, and I feel there is more respect for defenders with this attitude in Britain than in Europe. The fans appreciate it when you are fearless.”
At 6ft 4in, Katic - on loan at Home Park from Swiss club FC Zurich - may need all his physical attributes and the virtues of courage to keep City’s Viking warrior Erling Haaland at bay.
But he will not shrink to the occasion as 8,000 travelling disciples from Devon swarm to the Etihad. Once you have scored the winner at Celtic Park in the sectarian frenzy of an Old Firm derby, as Katic did for Steven Gerrard ’s Rangers in December 2019, football conceals few demons.
“I have many good memories of my time in Scotland, but that occasion and the electricity of the fans was special,” he said. “Although I have played in big matches for my national team, in Europe and our last (Cup) game with Liverpool, nothing compares with the atmosphere of those games in Glasgow.
“For people outside the UK who don’t know about the history and rivalry, it is not easy to understand the intensity. But once you have experienced it, you are ready for anything. I would say it is probably the best.”
It’s 41 years since Plymouth reached the FA Cup semi-finals as a lowly Third Division club, and they may be a distant 35-1 with the bookies to shoot down a Blue Moon out of the night sky, but Katic is having none of the ‘big day out’ mentality.
“It would be disrespectful to the club, our fans and to the competition if we did not go there believing we could win,” he said.
“The reality is that City are one of the best teams in the world, and it’s probably going to be even more difficult than beating Liverpool because we are the away team, but you have to reach for the stars.”
Fancy that - odds of 35-1 in a two-hour race. Sometimes, in football, the tooth is stranger than fiction.
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