EFL Cup Manchester City vs Liverpool tips: Premier League giants set for another cup goalfest?

Sergiu Baltuta
21 December 2022

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp (left) and Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola

As domestic football reboots after the World Cup, Tipstrr's football expert Sergiu Baltuta is expecting to be entertained by Thursday's massive EFL Cup clash between Manchester City and Liverpool.

After the World Cup, the return of English football could hardly bring us a bigger game to whet our domestic appetite, as Manchester City and Liverpool go head to head in the EFL Cup on Thursday night.

Indeed, after the extended break, this game has more of a feel of a Community Shield curtain-raiser than a major mid-season cup-tie, and with that in mind, it will be interesting to see the starting line-ups fielded by Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp.

City rebooted with a friendly game last weekend, when goals from Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne secured a 2-0 win against Girona.

On the other side, Liverpool played two friendly games against very good opponents, although they looked a little rusty in their opening 3-1 defeat against Lyon, despite opening the scoring and Mo Salah missing a penalty.

They were much more accomplished in all aspects in their second game, beating AC Milan by an emphatic 4-1 margin, with Salah, Tiago and Nunez(2) scoring for Liverpool.

Considering both teams had multiple players at the World Cup, including one each in the final, there is sure to be some shuffling of squads, with Argentina's Julian Alvarez and French defender Ibrahima Konate both likely to be absent.

Guardiola has no injury problems in his squad, but Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva, Joao Cancelo and Ederson are uncertain and could be rested after reaching the quarter-finals of the World Cup.

Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan returned from Qatar earlier, so they lined up against Girona and are ready to start against Liverpool alongside Erling Haaland and Riyah Mahrez, who both missed the World Cup action and are eager to return to action.

According to the media, the Spanish manager might well blood a few youngsters like Cole Palmer, Rico Lewis and Shea Charles for this game, which tends to be par for the course for this competition anyway.

Liverpool will definitely miss Arthur Melo, Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota, all of whom are injured, but Mo Salah and Roberto Firmino will most likely lead Liverpool's line, as both players missed the World Cup and are eager to return to the fray.

Naby Keita and Joel Matip both recovered from pre-existing injuries during the international break and are expected to play, but Klopp may rest Virgil van Dijk, Alisson Becker, Fabinho and Jordan Henderson, all of whom were involved in the latter stages in Qatar.

The two teams have faced each other twice already this season, the first of which saw Liverpool win 3-1 in the Community Shield. October's Premier League encounter saw Liverpool prevail once again, thanks to another important Salah goal.

The last cup confrontation between the two teams was last season's FA Cup semi-final, when once again Liverpool won 3-2. Bearing in mind the rustiness of both squads, this game could well follow a similar path, suggesting another entertaining encounter with goals at both ends.

Five of their last six encounters have produced at least three goals, while six of their last seven games saw both teams find the net, so history would suggest that there will be more goals in this match, especially after an extended lay-off that might result in disjointed defensive performances.