Getty Manchester City will visit Burton Albion in the first leg of the teams' Carabao Cup semi-final.
Burton Albion will host Manchester City at Pirelli Stadium on Wednesday in the first leg of the sides’ Carabao Cup semi-final.
In the United States, the match is scheduled to start at 2:45 p.m. ET. While it won’t be broadcast nationally on television anywhere in the US, you can still watch a live stream of the game on your computer, phone, or streaming device via ESPN+, the new digital streaming service from ESPN that has exclusive coverage to dozens of sporting events every week, including every Carabao Cup match.
You can sign up for a free seven-day trial of ESPN+ right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the match on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or other streaming device via the ESPN app.
If you can’t watch live, all games that are streamed on ESPN+ are also available to be watched afterwards on-demand via ESPN.com or the ESPN app.
Manchester City vs Burton Albion Leg 1 Preview
The Sky Blues sit in second in the Premier League with 50 points through 21 games. Their last time out, they blasted Rotherham 7-0 in the third round of the FA Cup.
Against their League One foes, City manager Pep Guardiola will feature youngsters like 18-year-old defender Eric Garcia and 20-year-old goalkeeper Aro Muric. Guardiola assured supporters that the relative inexperience of the squad being deployed doesn’t mean the team isn’t taking the semi-final match seriously.
“I like to be in the four competitions as far as possible,” the manager said, according to the Manchester Evening News. “When Wigan put us out of the FA Cup last season I was sad. But since I arrived we played United (in the League Cup) and played with a lot of young players, the same the second season, the same the third season – that’s what has happened.
“I take the cups seriously. Against Rotherham, for example, we played with nine players who didn’t play against Liverpool and the nine were a good selection.”
Albion Burton have 35 points through 26 League One matches for ninth place. Their surprising run to the semi-final featured victories over Nottingham Forest and Middlesbrough in the fourth and fifth rounds.
Whether he’s serious or just motivating his team, Burton manager Nigel Clough said his side has little chance against the Sky Blues.
“It’s almost a bye to the final for City,” Clough said, according to The Telegraph. “I don’t think we can go into it thinking we’ve got a fighting chance of winning it.
“If we beat them over two legs, it will be the biggest shock of all time. I don’t know what Pep’s thinking will be but I would imagine it will be to make the second leg irrelevant. But we’ve got to try and do the opposite to that and try to retain a glimmer of hope.
“We know that one of their players is on as much money as all of our squad in the Championship. That’s the gulf and it’s going to be multiplied several times against Manchester City. You cannot worry about it.”
Most recently, the Brewers blasted Rochdale 4-0 in League One play, behind a Marcus Harness hat trick.
“It’s great to go into that game with another clean sheet and a good performance,” Harness told the team’s website. “We will just go there and give it our best.
“Playing against the best players in the world is what you dream about as a kid and we are all buzzing as we have nothing to lose and can just go out and enjoy it.”