Southampton v Manchester City: Carabao Cup quarter-final – live

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The teams are out! Southampton are in their inverted Rank Xerox shirts, while Manchester City wear third-choice Stabilo Boss highlighter green. Ah, those early 80s Saints shirts! Any old excuse to post the greatest First Division goal of all time. We’ll be off in a minute.

There’s another League Cup quarter-final being played this evening. Nottingham Forest host ATVLand rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers at the City Ground. It’s a 7.45pm kick off. No early goals. News when we have it.

Nathan Jones talks to Sky. “It’s one of the best teams in the world. It’ll be a really tough challenge, but we’ll have to embrace it. It’s a wonderful night, quarter-final of the EFL Cup, and it’s a wonderful occasion. We’ll have to rise to that. We’ll have to do things very, very well tonight, and a lot of things have to happen for us to win the game, but look, it’s an exciting night. The result is paramount … but first we need a performance, because if you don’t get that, you don’t get the result. But we’d love a performance and a result.”

Pep Guardiola speaks to Sky Sports. “We are still alive in everything. Eleven players cannot play every game. We need everyone to play. I’ve done it all my career, play everyone. Maybe in the second half, people will play minutes. We are playing the same way as normal. All managers are different and play different shapes. We have struggled here with Ralph [Hasenhuttl] in the past, but we have good memories too.”

Some breaking news: Southampton have signed Argentinian midfielder Carlos ‘Charly’ Alcaraz from Racing Club. The 20-year-old, who scored 12 goals in 83 appearances for Racing, has signed a four-and-a-half-year deal with the Saints. “He will give us a really exciting option and add a bit more creativity into the side, which is something that will be a real benefit to us,” says manager Nathan Jones.

Southampton make five changes to the starting XI named for the 2-1 FA Cup win at Crystal Palace. Kyle Walker-Peters, Moussa Djenepo, Ibrahima Diallo, Romeo Lavia and Sekou Mara are in for Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Romain Perraud, Joe Aribo, Samuel Edozie and Che Adams. Croatia winger Mislav Orsic, the £6m January signing from Dinamo Zagreb, is on the bench and ready for his debut.

Manchester City make four changes to the side that started the 4-0 FA Cup rout of Chelsea. In come Joao Cancelo, Ilkay Gundogan, Jack Grealish and – making his first start for City since moving from Leeds in a £42m summer deal – Kalvin Phillips. Making way: Rodri, Manuel Akanji, Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez.

The Saints Brass band go marching in before kick-off. Photograph: Michael Steele/Getty Images

The teams

Southampton: Bazunu, Djenepo, Lyanco, Caleta-Car, Salisu, Walker-Peters, Diallo, Lavia, Ward-Prowse, Mara, Armstrong.
Subs: Caballero, Perraud, Finnigan, Elyounoussi, Edozie, Aribo, Orsic, Adams, Morgan.

Manchester City: Ortega Moreno, Cancelo, Walker, Laporte, Gomez, Phillips, Gundogan, Foden, Palmer, Alvarez, Grealish.
Subs: Ederson, Ake, Haaland, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Akanji, Mahrez, Lewis.

The teams in social-media form.

Preamble

Manchester City have won four of the last five League Cups. They’ve won five of the last seven. They’ve won six of the last nine. They know how to get the job done. They’re hot favourites to win tonight. They’re Manchester City.

Football can be a funny thing, though. Southampton may have lost their last two matches against City 4-0 and 4-1, and they may have lost their last six Premier League games straight. But they’re also coming off the back of a spirit-replenishing FA Cup win at Crystal Palace, and they did manage to hold City twice in the league last season. So you never know. Saints reached the final of this competition in 2017 and another visit to the semis could kick-start their season of struggle. They’ll not want to end the evening wondering. Kick-off is at 8pm GMT. It’s on!