Manchester City, already up by an eye-popping margin of 9-0 in their EFL Cup semi-final tie against Burton Albion, can treat Wednesday night’s meeting as a glorified friendly if they so desire. Having rolled up a massive advantage in the home leg of this tie, they can do a lot of squad rotation here, give the youngsters some game time and coast into the final, where they will meet the Chelsea-Tottenham Hotspur winner.
However, manager Pep Guardiola has promised to field a strong lineup for the midweek clash, so don’t expect to see a full reserve side out there for City in this one.
After losing some games and dropping some points in midseason, City seems to be hitting their stride now. And most of their injury troubles seem to be over for the being time as well. With midfield maestro Kevin De Bryune and striker supreme Sergio Aguero back to 100%, defender Benjamin Mendy is the only major injury absentee.
Switching over to the hosts, they will likely be without midfielder Scott Fraser who was taken off injured in his side’s draw against Doncaster this past weekend. Other than that, Burton is at near full-strength, so they will obviously go with their strongest team possible here, in an effort to try and keep this result from getting way out of hand again.
Manchester City at Burton Albion EFL Cup semi-final (second leg) FYIs
Kickoff: Wednesday, January 23, 7:45 PM local, Pirelli Stadium
TV: Sky Sports Main Event
Pep Guardiola media conference: 1:30 pm on Tuesday 22 January. The embargoed section will be held until 10.30pm on Tuesday 22 January. Video and quotes coming tomorrow
MCFC Starting XI Prediction: go to this link
Burton Recent form in EFL Cup: WWWWWL
Recent form (all competitions): DDWLLD
Man City Recent form in EFL Cup: WWWWWW
Recent form (all competitions): WWWWWW
Prediction: City 5, Burton 0
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.