Sheffield United prepared to "suffer" in order to stun Manchester City

Heckingbottom’s side, which is on the brink of securing automatic promotion from the Championship, meet opponents chasing what would be a historic treble in the last four of the competition at Wembley tomorrow.

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With Pep Guardiola’s squad also in contention to win both the Premier League and the Champions League, United enter the tie as huge underdogs with even Heckingbottom admitting “few people on the planet” probably “believe” they can qualify for June’s showpiece.

Although that opinion is not shared with the South Yorkshire club’s dressing room, Heckingbottom said: “We are going to have to suffer in some moments But also be ready to do something with the ball when we do have it. We don’t want to be passive. We can't be naive enough either to think we can go at them man for man all over the pitch.

“There will be times when we can press and use that as a weapon. There will also be some moments when we have to defend space. We have to be disciplined and clear in terms of what we do when we go after the ball and also what it looks like when it goes wrong and we lose it or don’t get it.”

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Together with Oliver Norwood, who is expected to anchor United’s midfield with on-loan duo Tommy Doyle and James McAtee ineligible for selection against their employers, Heckingbottom is convinced United have players who can hurt City despite the opposition’s array of world class talent.

Ben Osborn, who could have been deployed alongside Norwood, remains unavailable because of injury according to the United manager. But Enda Stevens has returned to full-time training following a long absence. Centre-half Anel Ahmedhodzic has travelled to the national stadium, with United making contingency plans should his pregnant partner give birth at a Sheffield hospital.

Although United have lost all of their last four meetings with City, three of those defeats have come via a single goal.

“We know we need them to have a bit of an off day and for us to be at our very best but the players can draw confidence from our last few games,” Heckingbottom said. “We know even though they were good, they weren’t quite good enough performances to beat City. So we have to do something a little bit different. City are doing things differently two years on. We are doing things differently two years on.”

Second in the table, United are now only one win away from sealing their return to the top-flight after two seasons away. Their first opportunity to do that will come when West Bromwich Albion travel north on Wednesday.

“If we achieve a promotion, this is the level,” he said. “Let’s test ourselves. City are at the very top. If we do go up, that is the next level. They’re not an average Premier League team. Let’s measure ourselves against them.”

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