Manchester City midfielder Patrick Vieira was left disappointed by their FA Cup draw with Stoke City.

Vieira, at 33 the voice of experience from a career that has brought World Cup and European Championship medals, has no doubt City will need to fight hard for a place in the last eight.

He told City's website: "The FA Cup is really important to me, and I'm disappointed because I really believed that we should win this game. But we made it difficult for ourselves.

"I've heard that Stoke is a really difficult place to go. But now, if we want to get into the next round, we have to go there and perform and win the game. We don't have a choice.

"Of course, before we can play our football we need to win the battle. It was a battle for 90 minutes.

"They make it hard for you, they are right in your face. But we knew it would be tough. Scoring first should have made it easier for us, but it didn't, so we are quite disappointed."