Manchester City’s quest to regain the Carabao Cup begins away at League One Huddersfield Town on Wednesday night, Softfootball reports.
The Cityzens enter this cup tie off the back of their first three-game week of the season, which concluded with a 1–1 draw away at Arsenal on Sunday evening. Pep Guardiola’s side had previously downed Manchester United and Napoli.
The manager’s ideological U-turn at the John Smith’s Stadium, starting academy stars, is an indication of the fatigue currently prevailing through his squad at this early juncture.
City was once an unbeatable force in this competition, lifting the trophy four times between 2018 and 2021, but they haven’t triumphed since.
Pep Guardiola has made a plethora of changes to the starting lineup that drew 1-all with Arsenal. In total, Guardiola has made nine changes. The highlights are that there are six Manchester City academy graduates in the starting eleven. There are also four academy players on the bench for tonight’s match. Divine Mukasa makes his first start for Manchester City. The young attacking midfielder will make his first-team debut for the club in what is a special moment for Mukasa.
Kalvin Phillips is on the bench, which shows that his City career isn’t over just yet. While Phil Foden leads the attack, the duo of Erling Haaland and Jeremy Doku, who scored for the Cityzens last week against Napoli, were also rested by Pep Guardiola.
The last time Manchester City visited Huddersfield at home was in 2019, when the trio of Raheem Sterling, Leroy Sane, and Danilo scored for the Citizens.
Watch Sterling’s goal as released on Manchester City’s official X handle below:
Meanwhile, City have defeated Huddersfield five times across all competitions, with the most recent victory a 5-0 win in the FA Cup.
With Pep Guardiola’s setup tonight, the Spaniard will be expecting to break the ill luck in the third round as he plays against his opponent. City have failed to go past the EFL third round on two occasions.
Last season, they were stopped by Tottenham, and in the 2023/2024 season, it was Newcastle that eliminated the Citizens from the tournament.
Watch the last 10 goals of Manchester City in the EFL as released on their official X handle below:
Meanwhile, their upcoming opponents, Huddersfield, are now led by former Man Utd goalkeeper Lee Grant. His first managerial role started promisingly in Yorkshire, with the Terriers sitting fifth in League One after nine games. They’ve also beaten teams in divisions above, including Premier League Sunderland, to reach the third round of this competition.
Grant’s side have overcome a couple of notable obstacles so far in this competition, and the new manager shouldn’t change too much on the personnel front from their victories over Leicester City and Sunderland in previous rounds. However, the hosts are without the injured trio of Herbie Kane, Lynden Gooch and Jack Whatmough on Wednesday night. Two of their Carabao Cup goalscorers so far, David Vost and Chelsea loanee Leo Castledine, are sure bets to be included in Grant’s starting XI.
Confirmed line-up
Huddersfield Town
Starting XI: Nicholls, Sorensen, Feeney, Wallace, Roughan, Vost, Kasumu, Harness, Redmond, Wiles (C), Charles.
Substitutes: Goodman, Ledson, Low, Taylor, Castledine, Radulovic, May, Ashia, Sway
Starting lineup: Trafford, Matheus Nunes, Stones, Ake, O’Reilly, Gonzalez, Lewis, Foden, Bobb, Savinho, Mukasa.
Substitutes: Donnarumma, Dias, Reijnders, Bernardo, Phillips, Braithwaite, J. Heskey, Mfuni, R. Heskey.
