Manchester City take on Stoke City on December 5 so follow all the action live.
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The focus now shifts back to the Premier League, where the Citizens will be looking to preserve their lead at the top during the busy festive period. Caution with young players is perfectly understandable, particularly at City where the level required to make the transition from academy to first team is so high. “I think that Everton’s a very strong rival, but Stoke or Liverpool would also be, so it’s important I think to try to win that semi-final and play the final in Wembley”.
Yaya Toure is out after suffering a muscle injury in training and Eliaquim Mangala is suspended, joining Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta and Samir Nasri on the sidelines. The two-time Premier League champions haven’t managed a clean sheet without their captain this since, while Aguero’s absence will obviously serve to blunt their attacking edge.
“We were on a great run before the Sunderland away game when we didn’t get the result we wanted”, the 32-year-old said.
“It’s likely that he will miss the next three or four weeks which is a huge disappointment to him, just as it is to us”, Hughes confirmed. Highlights of the game will be on BBC Match of the Day at 10:25pm GMT on BBC One.
Manuel Pellegrini has insisted Manchester City did not make a mistake by deciding not to sign a striker this summer, and says he is unconcerned by his side’s current lack of options at the position.
“Jovetic and Kun had a lot of injuries in the first half of the season and Dzeko also”.
Former China global Sun Jihai, who played for City from 2002-08, was made a club ambassador in September, and was inducted to the Manchester-based National Football Museum’s Hall of Fame in October while Chinese President Xi Jinping was visiting.
There is however good news for City as Joe Hart is fit again and could start on Saturday as well as Fernando and Jesus Navas.
“We had a lack of reaction, too many games for the same players”, the Chilean told the BBC. “Every team needs a player like that”, said team-mate Raheem Sterling.
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The Barclays Premier League leaders were recently linked with an audacious move for Lionel Messi, the Barcelona forward, and were reportedly prepared to pay the world’s best player £800,000 a week to secure his services.
