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Leicester City vs Manchester City in the Quarter-Final of the Carabao Cup
Live from the King Power Stadium, Tuesday at 2:45 PM ET on ESPN +
Manchester City comes to Leicester with hopes of repeating as champions of the Carabao Cup. Without a win in three games, Leicester look to use this match as an opportunity to have a strong outing and maybe even get a win.
The Opposition
Manchester City had a decent journey to get here. There first stop was at Oxford where they won 3-0. They then hosted Fulham and cruised to a 2-0 victory. Manchester City largely rotated their squad, minus a few key players, but let their youth lead them to this round.
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Leicester City will have to deal with defending Kevin De Bruyne after Pep Guardiola mentioned he will play a big part in this match. While the Foxes already assumed they’d be playing with less of the ball and up against a creative side, KDB will add another layer of danger and the Foxes will have to be sharp and stay in their defensive shape.
The Foxes
Leicester got their start a round earlier than City, with a home match with Fleetwood town. They won that 4-0, then managed to only score penalties in the direct-to-shootouts after the 90th minute whistle. Danny Ward has been the hero in the past two matches, but he will be facing arguably his toughest test yet against Manchester City’s offense.
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The Manager plans to relegate Vardy to the bench, a move that won’t please many Foxes fans. Will it fix Leicester’s recent offensive woes? Not if means Kelechi Iheanacho and his inability to hold up the ball, or Demarai Gray in a shawdy false number 9 role. I’m not too confident in this decision, but it is the Who Really Cares Cup.
The Prediction
Leicester won’t need to pull of a miracle to beat this Manchester City side, but they will have to be more clinical than they have been in some time and will have stick to their defensive shape and even that might not be enough to win. I think the Foxes will have to steal this in another penalty shootout if they hope to advance to the next round.