Manchester United welcome Manchester City to Old Trafford in a blockbuster semi-final of 2020-21 Carabao Cup.
Man City are looking to reach a fourth straight final but again face a Manchester derby at this stage for a second consecutive season, albeit just over one match this season after second legs were scrapped.
The winner of this tie will face Tottenham at Wembley in the final on Sunday 25 April 2021 after the North Londoners defeated Brentford in the other semi-final.
Team News
Victor Lindelof is in contention to return for Man Utd after a back injury kept him out of their last two matches.
Edinson Cavani (suspension), Marcos Rojo (calf) and Phil Jones (knee) are ruled out.
Man City will again be without Aymeric Laporte due to a hamstring injury, whilst Nathan Ake is a doubt with a muscle injury.
Ederson, Eric Garcia, Kyle Walker, Tommy Doyle, Ferran Torres and Gabriel Jesus remain absent as the quartet continue to self-isolate after testing positive for Coronavirus.
Stat Attack
- Man Utd have lost four of nine previous League Cup meetings against Man City (W4, D1, L4).
- City have failed to win four of five previous trips to Old Trafford in League Cup (W1, D1, L3).
- Just two of Utd’s eight goals in this competition this season have come before half-time, of which both goals came in 44th minute from Juan Mata and Scott McTominay respectively.
Prediction
Man Utd come into this game after scraping a win over Aston Villa on New Year’s Day which might actually stand them in good stead, because the Villains really forced them to play creative football even if meant wasting shots and City will certainly provide a similar test.
Eight injury absentees coupled with a fast and furious January though will limit City in terms of squad rotation, although they did a great job to deliver a clinical win at Chelsea after soaking up early pressure and weathering various attacking storms from the Blues who were woeful with their shots.
This therefore should be a cracking encounter between two strong teams but if Utd can continue to show how stronger they’ve become in recent weeks, I can see them having the edge here because City’s squad crisis surely has to affect them at some point.
Prediction: Manchester United 2-1 Manchester City
Result: Manchester United 0-2 Manchester City
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