Bristol City will need 'A Kind of Magic' on Tuesday night but as 'Another One Bit the Dust' in Hull City on Saturday, the young Robins can relish being the outsiders to face Manchester City.
That's the message from Luke Steele who was dancing to Queen with his daughter Sienna when I interrupted his Freddie Mercury moment last week. It's been just over five years since the former City keeper lined up against Pep Guardiola's side on that memorable night at Ashton Gate.
Following a 2-1 defeat at the Etihad in the first leg, City went toe-to-toe with the Premier League giants and recovered from conceding two early goals to claw their way back into the tie. Marlon Pack and Aden Flint cancelled out Leroy Sane and Sergio Aguero goals before De Bruyne ended any unlikely comeback in injury time.
"My shoulder is still sore to this day because De Bruyne ran right through me," was one of Steele's first comments following a five-minute chat convincing me 'I Want to Break Free' is Queen's best song. "They edged it, Magnus (Hordur Magnusson) made a bad mistake and Sane smashed one in but we did ourselves no shame in how we came back.
"The atmosphere that day, I remember being absolutely electric like it should be in any semi-final. It was a full house and Marlon Pack scored.
"I remember us getting back into the game and just feeling as though we could nick another goal and obviously they got one on the break to put it to bed but we gave them a really good game and the lads did fantastically. There wasn't too much sadness afterwards, we gave them a good run."
Steele, 38, only played 10 games for the Robins after joining as second-choice keeper to Frankie Fielding in August 2017. However, he was key to City's run to the semi-finals of the League Cup starring in victories over Stoke, Crystal Palace and Manchester United.
That was why he was left "absolutely gutted" when Lee Johnson went against his word and informed him he was going to opt for Fielding to start at the Etihad Stadium in the opening leg. "It was a nightmare," he recalls.
"Basically I signed for the club late so they had already started the season. I was told I was going to get all the cup games until we got knocked out. With the league games I was told if I was going to be on the bench and if I deserved my chance then obviously I'd get in. But Frankie was playing really well and I'd had no qualms with that. I'd been playing really well in the cup.
"As it happened, it was a brilliant cup run. We'd beaten Manchester United, we got to the semi-finals where we have two legs against Manchester City and the manager just pulled me aside and said, 'I'm going to go with our best side which means Frank just edges in front of you because he'd been playing well in the league.'
"I replied with 'what do you mean?' We've just got our best win in the club's history and now you're going back on what you said' and he didn't play me.
"That was a real shame, I was absolutely gutted. I told Frank straight away just to make sure he knew he was playing. He was surprised as well but as a manager, you have to do what you have to do. I felt hard done by because I felt as though I played a big part to get to the semi-final but that's football.
"Ironically, after the first leg, we played Derby away. Frank got injured after about 15 minutes and I came on so I ended up being needed and obviously played the second leg.
"Whether he would have changed it, I don't know but I ended up playing so that's the way it went. Obviously, I was gutted and it wasn't a great day. It was the fact it was a semi-final that I felt like I deserved to be in. Man City were absolutely flying by this point and it knocked the stuffing out of me."
A lot has changed in BS3 in half a decade. Unlike Manchester City, with Kyle Walker, John Stones, De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva still part of the club, while Ilkay Gundogan was a second-half substitute, the Robins have no surviving members of that squad as Nigel Pearson looks to test his wits against Guardiola for the first time in his managerial career.
Nobody is expecting the hosts to pull off an upset but preparations couldn't have gone much better for Pearson's side. They stretched their unbeaten run to 12 games in all competitions on Saturday which left the manager pulling off his own dance moves in the dugout.
Pearson may be tempted to alter his four-at-the-back formation that has proved so successful over this impressive run of results to quell the threat of Man City's attacking threat. But Steele, who is now manager of Peterborough Sports in the National League North, believes he needs to stick to his guns for the best chance of pulling off a result.
"I actually played against them in the quarter-final for Barnsley 10 years ago," he added. "I was starting and was captain for them. I know you want to know about Bristol City but it was a lower Championship side, we had a good cup run but hadn't beaten any giants.
"We got it totally wrong. Our manager took us to Manchester United's training ground and we tried a new system and tried to completely change it.
"We were a long ball side that year, we were playing for the percentages and had done phenomenally well in the Championship. But we went there and tried to play football and he picked a bit of a different team and we got it totally wrong.
"In the first half, I conceded three goals from Carlos Tevez and the game was done. We got beat 5-0 and it was just over in a flash. It was over before we knew it. You have to hang on in those games and you have to stick to your guns no matter how good the opposition is."
For many of these young City players, this will be the biggest test in their blossoming careers. When they line up alongside star-studded names in the tunnel, a raucous noise echoing around the Gate, it will only be natural to feel apprehensive about the challenge at hand.
Although easier said than done, Steele has challenged the likes of Sam Bell and George Tanner not to be overwhelmed by the occasion. He said: "I'd definitely give the advice that when I was young and I played at places like Anfield, Chelsea and Wembley, I was very young and it was my first full season as a footballer.
"Try and get away from nerves because nerves can kill you. I was nervous when I played at Wembley and I was too nervous when I played against Chelsea and I don't think I did myself justice.
"If you can get away from that and think 'I'm going to give it my all and whatever happens, happens.' that's the best you can do because nerves are a waste of energy. If you can control it and you can learn to control it over the years, you'll be a far better person and a far better player."
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