Getty Fernandinho of Manchester City is shown a yellow card. He will miss Tuesday's match against Southampton due to suspension. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
Two teams who are playing drastically different soccer right now square off Tuesday when Manchester City host Southampton in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup.
For those who are in the United States, the match (3:45 p.m. ET start time) isn’t on TV, but you can watch the game live on ESPN+, the digital streaming service from ESPN that has exclusive coverage of every Carabao Cup match, plus dozens of other live sports, all the 30-for-30 documentaries and other original content all for $4.99 per month.
You can sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then watch a live stream of Man City vs Southampton and every other Carabao Cup 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.
Man City vs Southampton Preview
These two teams will be squaring off twice this week; once in this match, and again in a Premier League match Saturday. Man City have been playing rather well as of late. They scored eight goals in their last two matches, most recently beating Aston Villa 3-0 in a Premier League match. Southampton, on the other hand, are coming off a very bad performance against Leicester City in which they lost 9-0 at home, setting a Premier League record for most goals given up by a hosting team
Citizens coach Pep Guardiola isn’t entering this match expecting a repeat performance from Southampton, however. “I am not going to judge Southampton or prepare for the games on that result against Leicester,” he said. Guardiola seems more concerned about his growing list of unavailable players, as Man City will be incredibly short-handed because of injuries and/or suspensions due to red cards.
“We don’t have Fernandinho for the Carabao Cup, we have to play another one,” Guardiola said. “These situations exist in football, especially in one season, one long season,” he said, referring to the suspension of midfielder-defender Fernandinho, who got a red card against Villa, forcing him to sit this match out. Man City will also be without Aymeric Laporte, Leroy Sane, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Rodri, so they will be short-handed to say the least. Look for 18-year old Eric Garcia to play a key role for Man City.
The Saints will be definite underdogs in the match, and they will also be without a key player lost to suspension: Ryan Bertrand got a red card against Leicester, and will sit out Tuesday’s match. They may be getting Moussa Djenepo back, however. Djenepo missed several weeks with a leg injury, and he could very well provide a spark for Southampton.
Kevin Danso could should also warrant a spot in the starting lineup for the Saints after he provided some of the team’s brightest moments during the loss to Leicester. Look for Danso to replace Bertrand, and keep an eye on him throughout the match–he’s definitely one of the Saints potential breakout stars.
Southampton captain Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg will be another player to watch. Hojbjerg recently told the Southern Daily Echo that he was embarrassed by his team’s recent 9-0 trouncing, and they aren’t looking to see that kind of loss happen again.
“If there is one saying it’s, ‘Tough periods make tough people’,” he said. “I can try and say something, but it won’t change anything. I don’t want to speak, I want to show by action. I don’t care who is coming up. Our actions have to speak. We never want to be in this position again or anywhere near it. We have to get back up and make sure this never happens again.”
His team will have another chance to rebound against a very tough Man City team Tuesday.