Manchester City continue the defense of their League Cup title when they host Southampton FC in a round of 16 tie Tuesday night. As you might expect, the Citizens are heavily favored to win this clash and then move on to the quarter-finals.
It’s certainly a very interesting tournament right now, at least by the usual standards of interest for this thing, which is typically quite low. That’s because Wednesday’s ties feature two all-big six showdowns in Manchester United-Chelsea and Liverpool-Arsenal. It should make for a fun round of 8 as the field is guaranteed not to be dominated by big six clubs.
Tottenham Hotspur already crashed out in the previous round.
That said, let’s take a look at who could be in the first team when City hosts the Saints Tuesday night. Expect the south coast club to try and field a decently strong team as they look to shake off their beyond embarrassing record setting loss to Leicester City on Friday night.
For City, you can expect manager Pep Guardiola to rotate his side in this a lower priority contest. He will be put forth a team that’s a mix of starters and reserves.
Starting XI Predictions
Southampton FC: McCarthy; Stephens, Yoshida, Vestergaard; Valery, Romeu, Hojbjerg, Armstrong, Danso; Adams, Long
Manchester City: Bravo; Walker, Garcia, Otamendi, Angelino; Gundogan, Foden; Mahrez, Bernabe, Sterling; Aguero
Southampton FC at Manchester City FYIs
Kickoff: Tues Oct 29, 745 BST, City of Manchester Stadium
Team news for both sides: go to this link
Referee: Jonathan Moss
Prediction: Manchester City 5, Southampton FC 0
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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