Manchester City-Liverpool is a League Cup fourth round match to be played on Thursday at 21:00: stats, line-ups and predictions.
The World Cup ended only last Sunday with a match that is destined to become legend. But just days after the epilogue in Lusail, which saw the triumph of Leo Messi’s Argentina, here’s another match to lick your lips, especially for those already suffering from withdrawal from great football.
In England the round of 16 of the League Cup, the third most important competition, is being played. And the three days of matches ends with a juicy Manchester City-Liverpool, a pairing that we could very well have seen in the final but which this time happens with enormous anticipation. The Reds are the title holders: last year they dethroned Pep Guardiola’s Citizens, who had won the last four editions of the event. Jurgen Klopp’s team triumphed in February 2022 in the Wembley final against Chelsea, beaten on penalties, and became the club with the most League Cups in its trophy cabinet: no one has nine like Liverpool.
An early final
This is a real early final, pitting the two Premier League battleships who last season fought it out to the last day against each other.
Klopp and Guardiola
This year, on the other hand, they are encountering quite a few difficulties: Manchester City is second and is forced to chase the surprising Arsenal; Liverpool, on the other hand, had to deal with a disappointing start. They are currently only sixth in the standings and have to make up six points against fourth-placed Tottenham. Salah and his team-mates, however, have always proved indigestible for Guardiola’s men: in the summer they beat them 3-1 in the Community Shield final at Leicester’s neutral venue and they repeated themselves in October in the league match played at Anfield Road and decided by a goal from the Egyptian phenomenon in the final.
A big match that will inevitably be conditioned by absences, as many of the protagonists have recently returned from the World Cup. On the City side there should be Gundogan, De Bruyne, Haaland and Mahrez, all four of whom played in the friendly against Girona. On the other side, Jurgen Klopp will be able to count on Salah, Darwin Nunez and Firmino, who featured in the test in Dubai against AC Milan.
The Prediction
The last few matches between these two big names in English football have never disappointed in terms of goals and spectacle, with the exception of last October’s match in the league. This League Cup round of 16, on the other hand, holds many unknowns, due to the many absentees on both sides, but also due to a precarious athletic condition, having only resumed training a few weeks ago. The feeling is that we should still see at least one goal on each side, with both sides taking advantage of it to get back into the rhythm of the game from the outset, ahead of the Premier League resumption. Manchester City are slight favourites to qualify.
The Manchester City-Liverpool line-up probables
- MANCHESTER CITY (4-3-3): Ortega; Lewis, Katongo, Charles, Gomez; Palmer, Gundogan, De Bruyne; Mahrez, Haaland, Borges.
- LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Kelleher; Ramsay, Gomez, Phillips, Tsimikas; Elliott, Bajcetic, Oxlade-Chamberlain; Salah, Firmino, Carvalho.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 2-1
