Carabao Cup draw LIVE: Manchester United and Newcastle discover semi-final opponents

Manchester City get the ball rolling in the fourth and final quarter-final of this season’s Carabao Cup. Kyle Walker-Peters presses up the pitch quickly and piles the pressure on Joao Cancelo who flicks the ball back into his own box.

Stefan Ortega comes out and tidies up for City but Southampton’s aggressive start has excited the home fans.

Here come the teams.

Manchester City are the favourites to go on a lift the Carabao Cup this season but first they’ll have to get past Southampton. The Saints haven’t performed in the Premier League this year but they’ve impressed in the cups and have played with a bit of bite.

Pep Guardiola’s team have never lost a domestic quarter-final tie though and it’ll be a big test for Southampton to get past tonight.

The warm-ups are over at St. Mary’s and the teams are getting ready to head onto the pitch. In the other quarter-final of the night Nottingham Forest and Wolves have already kicked off at the City Ground.

Southampton have progressed from three of their four League Cup ties against Manchester City however they lost the most recent meeting in 2019/20.

Three of Southampton’s last five League Cup ties have gone to penalties, with Saints eliminating Sheffield United (2021/22) and Sheffield Wednesday (2022/23), but losing out to Chelsea in last season’s fourth round.

“It’s a cup game, we don’t want to keep the scoreline down, [or have] a respectable loss. In realistic terms it’s not the end of world, but it’s not what we’re looking at.

“We want to be aggressive, front-footed, continue our development. It’s a massive task, as Chelsea found out. They looked like they rested a lot of players and kept players back for this game.

“We know it will be tough, but a great test, a wonderful game - Man City at home in a quarter-final.”

Southampton boss, Nathan Jones, spoke about what it’s like to take on Manchester City in the Carabao Cup quarter-final tonight.

“It’s probably the toughest test you can possibly have.” he said, “They are one of the best in the world, but it’s the quarter-finals of a cup so you know it’s a shoot-out.

“It’s winner takes all so we need a strong home performance.”

Southampton have confirmed transfer of midfielder Carlos Alcaraz from Racing Club.

20-year-old Alcaraz signed a four-and-a-half-year contract at St Mary’s, becoming the second signing this month, following on the arrival of Croatia international winger Mislav Orsic last week.

He made his debut for Racing Club at the age of 17, in January 2020, quickly establishing himself as a regular and going on to make a total of 83 appearances for the side.

The last time Kalvin Phillips started a game, it was a historic low. England’s 4-0 evisceration by Hungary in the Nations League was their heaviest home defeat since 1928. It was the day Gareth Southgate was told by the England fans that he didn’t know what he was doing. It was seven months ago, and in part because of the World Cup, it feels longer.

The last time he began a club match, it was another season and ended in the high of saving his hometown club from the drop. Leeds’ 2-1 win at Brentford in May meant they leapfrogged Burnley to stay up on the final day. More than three-quarters of Phillips’ appearances for United came in the Championship but, while his departure was long expected, victory meant they were not returning there.

And now, belatedly, he is set to make a long-awaited full debut for Manchester City. Phillips has played 90 minutes for his new club, but spread across six substitute appearances in four competitions, the first more than five months ago. Since then, he has had shoulder surgery and returned in time to go to the World Cup, where he came off the bench twice. He returned overweight and was dropped from the squad for the last round of the Carabao Cup against Liverpool. Now he is set to face Southampton in Wednesday’s quarter-final.

The Saints have arrived and are ready to go. Can they shock Man City tonight?

Newcastle reached their first semi-final for 18 years when they beat Leicester on Tuesday evening to make it to the last four of the Carabao Cup.

The Magpies have not won a domestic trophy since 1955 and collected their last piece of major silverware 14 years later when they lifted the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, although there have been near misses, including two Premier League runners-up finishes, along the way.

Here we take a look at the semi-finals the Tyneside club has contested since they last tasted glory.