City make seven changes for Carabao Cup clash

Story byCity make seven changes for Carabao Cup clashManchester City FCThu, December 18, 2025 at 5:47 AM UTC·4 min readCity have made seven changes for tonight’s Carabao Cup quarter-final clash with Brentford at the Etihad Stadium. Club News 2025 Christmas opening hours at Stadium, Arndale and Trafford Centre stores Nico O’Reilly, Tijjani Reijnders, Nico and Rayan Cherki are the four starters from Sunday’s 3-0 victory over Crystal Palace in the Premier League that keep their place. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementDivine Mukasa returns to the starting line-up after featuring in the previous League Cup wins over Huddersfield and Swansea while fellow Academy players Stephen Mfuni and Charlie Gray are on the bench. As well as the injured trio of John Stones, Rodri and Jeremy Doku, we are without Omar Marmoush and Rayan Ait-Nouri who have joined up with Egypt and Algeria, respectively, for the African Cup of Nations. TeamsCITY XI: Trafford, Lewis, Khusanov, Ake (C), O’Reilly, Nico, Reijnders, Bobb, Cherki, Savinho, MukasaSubs: Donnarumma, Dias, Haaland, Bernardo, Gvardiol, M Nunes, Foden, Gray, MfuniBRENTFORD XI: Valdimarsson, Henry, Van den Berg, Ajer, Collins (C), Kayode, Jensen, Yarmoliuk, Damsgaard, Janelt, Schade. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSubs: Kelleher, Hickey, Pinnock, Lewis-Potter, Peart-Harris, Konak, G Nunes, Arthur, Donovan. FormationMukasa played as a false-nine in our two previous League Cup wins and could well lead the line for Pep Guardiola’s side tonight. Oscar Bobb and Savinho would then be the wingers although the boss does have the options with the latter able to play centrally. But Cherki has also impressed as a wide midfielder so could potentially drop into a more central role alongside Reijnders and Nico. There’s plenty for Pep to consider from his starting XI ahead of kick-off. Homegrown heroesIt’s another great day for our Academy with five homegrown players starting and three more on the bench. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementLeft-footed defender Mfuni was an unused sub in the third round win at Huddersfield while Gray is part of the squad for the first time. From Manchester, Gray is a hard-working holding midfielder who is also capable of playing in a more box-to-box role. Both have with the Club since the under-nines and were part of the successful 2024 Youth Cup campaign. Bees take flightBrentford are also without two players at the African Cup of Nations with Frank Onyeka and Dango Ouattara joining up with the Nigeria and Burkina Faso squads. We kept a clean sheet when we won 1-0 at the Gtech Community Stadium in the Premier League as we stood up to the high balls coming into the area. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“They can put the ball in the box from the halfway line, so I think we are prepared for any type of game of course every week or every three days,” Matheus Nunes said after our win at Crystal Palace on Sunday.“We have to prepare differently in certain parts of the game, but mostly when it comes to teams that play low blocks specifically we know that they’re going to put a lot of crosses in.”Stats and factsThis is just the second campaign we have faced Brentford in the League Cup, winning 5-3 on aggregate in the 1989/90 second round (1-2 away, 4-1 home). Since doing the Premier League double over City in 2022/23, Brentford have lost four of their last five against City in all competitions. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThis is our first League Cup quarter-final since a 2-0 loss to Southampton in 2022/23. Prior to that, they had progressed from eight consecutive ties at this stage of the competition. Brentford have reached the League Cup quarter-final for the fourth time in the last six seasons.