Getty Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne.
Manchester City FC will host AFC Bournemouth on Thursday in the third round of the EFL Cup, also known as the Carabao Cup.
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In the United States, the match (2:45 p.m. ET) won’t be on TV anywhere, but anyone in the US can watch Manchester City vs Bournemouth live on ESPN+:
ESPN+ will have live coverage of every Carabao Cup match in 20-21, as well as FA Cup, EFL, Bundesliga, Serie A, DFL Supercup, Bundesliga 2, MLS and other live sports. It also includes every 30-for-30 documentary and additional original content (both video and written) all for $5.99 per month.
Or, if you also want Disney+ and Hulu, you can get all three for $12.99 per month, which works out to about 31 percent savings:
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Once signed up for ESPN+, you can watch Manchester City vs Bournemouth live on the ESPN app on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet. Or you can watch on your computer via ESPN.com.
Manchester City vs Bournemouth Preview
City opened their 2020-21 campaign on Monday, besting Wolves 3-1 on the road in Premier League play.
Midfielder Kevin De Bruyne got the scoring started in the 20th minute, drawing a penalty in the box before finding the bottom right corner from the spot.
The Belgian sparked City’s second tally, sending a through ball into the box to forward Raheem Sterling, who found midfielder Phil Foden for the finish.
“I think we played really well,” De Bruyne said, according to the club’s official website.
He added: “Wolves have been a bogey team for us, so to come here and do this performance is good. We were missing some players. We will go game by game; Thursday (in the Carabao Cup) is another one.”
City manager Pep Guardiola noted he’ll rely heavily on his club’s youth against Bournemouth, as he’s missing seven first-teamers due to injury or illness.
“Against Bournemouth we will play mostly players in the academy and try to keep energy for the Premier League,” he said, per the club’s site.
“With the lack of preparation and seven players out, we have to keep the players who played today as fresh as possible.
“We will see how the players recover. We won the Carabao Cup three times and we want to win again but we will have to see.
“It is what it is. We have to adapt. Winning away in this stadium is so difficult. That’s why it’s a good victory for us.
“We cannot pretend we can recover in three days. That’s the situation we have.”
City finished last season second on the league table, 18 points shy of Liverpool.
Bournemouth found relegation to the EFL Championship, finishing a point behind 17th-place Aston Villa.
The Cherries got their 2020-21 season started with a 3-2 home win over Blackburn Rovers on Sept. 12, then drew 1-1 at Middlesbrough a week later, sandwiching those Championship results around a Sept. 15 home shoot-out victory over Crystal Palace in the second round of the EFL Cup.
Bournemouth forward Joshua King could make his season debut on Thursday. The 28-year-old — whose 6 goals across all competitions a season ago ranked third on the team — suffered a wrist injury while with the Norwegian international team earlier this month.
“I’m hoping to have him in the squad for tomorrow evening,” Cherries manager Jason Tindall said, according to the Bournemouth Daily Echo.
“But it’s one that we’ll assess again today and see how he comes through training and then I’ll make that decision off the back of training today.”