Southampton will play host to Manchester City at the St. Mary’s in a battle for a spot in the semi-final of the EFL Cup,

Thus far in the competition, the Saints have outdone three lower-league team to get to this stage while Man City have had to outmuscle Liverpool and Chelsea in the previous two rounds to set up a relatively easy clash with Southampton.

On paper. Man City are strong favourites to qualify for the last four, especially with confidence-boosting, consecutive wins over Chelsea that has seen them progress to the fourth round of the FA Cup and close the gap on league leaders Arsenal.

Southampton, on the other hand, will be boosted by their victory at the weekend, but a win against a ruthless Citizens will be an ambition too high for the Saints at this stage.

Team News

Pep Guardiola should travel with an almost full-strength squad, with Ruben Dias the only major concern heading into the clash.

Guardiola also hinted ahead of the game that Kalvin Phillips will start, with those rested against Chelsea – Ederson, John Stones, Nathan Ake, Ilkay Gundogan, Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland – likely to come into the side.

As for Southampton, they have a few more issues to deal with, and Alex McCarthy, Juan Larios, Valentino Livramento and Theo Walcott are doubts due to knocks, while manager Nathan Jones confirmed in his pre-match press conference that two players have definitely been ruled out.