Manchester United vs Manchester City: Carabao Cup Semi Final Preview

Manchester United host City rivals Manchester City in the Carabao Cup semi final on Wednesday evening where the winner would face Jose Mourinho's Tottenham Hotspur in the finals after they beat Brentford 2-0.

Carabao Cup Semi Final Preview:

The rules of the competition were altered at the beginning of the season, and it was decided that the two-legged system of the semi-finals was replaced with penalties if there is no winner at the end of the 90 minutes.

The Cityzens have been winning the Carabao Cup for the past three seasons but the United team they will face on Wednesday is more advanced in terms of their style and mentality.

Manchester United are currently joint-top league leaders with rivals Liverpool, but they do have a game in hand after the Reds failed to earn a point against the Saints, Southampton.

Manchester United were severely concerned about their home form but things seem to settle down now as they are unbeaten at Old Trafford in their past four fixtures.

Manchester United vs Manchester City: Head to Head

The Carabao Cup semi final will have an added value as the teams have won the same amount of games, 12 each with four draws. However, the recent past suggests that the Red Devils have been successful in painting the Manchester red, losing only one out of the last five surprisingly almost a year ago on January 8, 2020.

Recent Form

The Red Devils haven't looked back at their shambolic Champions League exit after they were their group's leaders for more than half of the time. Manchester United are now unbeaten in the Premier League since they lost to Arsenal at home on November 1 and have been clicking well.

Anthony Martial who was scrutinized for his poor start to the top-flight this season has seven-goal contributions from his last six appearances, while the Portuguese blessing for the Red Devils, Bruno Fernandes has 15 in all competitions till now in this season.

Pep Guardiola and Manchester City have also shown glimpses of what they used to be a couple of seasons ago, and things are expected to only get better from here.

Their performance against Frank Lampard's Blues was commendable and Pep would want something similar from his side in the semi-final.

Carabao Cup Semi Final: Team News

The hosts will be without the 'El Matador' Edinson Cavani for today's Carabao Cup semi final clash, after the FA banned him for three games as a result of a racist post, while Victor Lindelof remains a doubt because of a back problem.

Apart from these two, Manchester United have a plethora of options to consider. For Manchester City, goalkeeper Ederson, his fellow Brazilian team-mate Gabriel Jesus, and Kyle Walker are all self-isolating due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Eric Garcia who was struggling for match fitness also tested positive recently. However, Sergio Aguero will be Pep's main trump card as the Argentine has received ample rest, and he will be ready to go all guns blazing against United.

Carabao Cup Semi Final Line ups: 

Manchester United: Henderson; Wan-Bissaka, Bailly, Maguire, Telles; Fred, McTominay; Greenwood, Fernandes, Rashford; Martial.

Manchester City: Steffen; Cancelo, Dias, Laporte, Zinchenko; Rodri, Fernandinho, Gundogan; Mahrez, De Bruyne, Sterling. 

Carabao Cup Semi Final Prediction:

This will be one of the toughest games between the two recently. The sides played each other at the same venue, not more than a month ago, but the results weren't convincing as we witnessed a 0-0 draw at the end of 90 minutes.

However, this time a similar circumstance would lead to a penalty shootout, something that will make the fixture more interesting.

Sportco predicts Manchester City to win.