Burton vs Manchester City: Are you ready for one of the strangest semi-finals ever?

Before the first leg of this League Cup tie between Burton Albion and Manchester City, The Independent asked whether a semi-final had ever felt less important. In retrospect, we should have waited two weeks.

City’s 9-0 evisceration of third-tier Burton a fortnight ago has rendered tonight’s return leg at the Pirelli Stadium a formality and their safe passage to Wembley is a certainty. “We are in the final,” Pep Guardiola, not one to normally be so bullish, said after his side’s victory.

That first leg was a strange game. It was simultaneously possible to be thrilled by City’s irresistible attacking play, bored by the absence of any competitive element and dismayed by the imbalance in quality and resources.

The evening’s best entertainment came not from Gabriel Jesus’ four goals or any one of the five others but in the final minutes when, at nine down, Burton began time-wasting in order to avoid conceding a tenth. It was a surreal end to a surreal evening.

What, then, can we expect from this return leg? Not a turnaround, certainly. City’s lead is the biggest ever margin of victory in a semi-final of a English cup competition. A three-goal win will give the holders the biggest aggregate win in League Cup history.

Nor will there be a vision of City’s future. Guardiola had hoped to name a team mostly made up of academy players at the Pirelli Stadium but the Under-21s’ Checkatrade Trophy quarter-final against Sunderland on Tuesday night could not be rescheduled.

Guardiola has now said that only “two or three” young players will start in Burton – most likely Phil Foden, goalkeeper Aro Muric and 18-year-old centre-half Eric Garcia. They will be joined by Kevin De Bruyne and several other first-team players who require more minutes.

It is also unlikely to be a complete non-event. Despite being criticised in some quarters for refusing to ease off on Burton last time, expect City to show no mercy. Guardiola insists that playing at your best is the only way to truly respect an opponent and the competition.

He will, therefore, use this encounter with a spirited but inferior opponent to fine tune his side’s delicately devised attacking play, ironing out imperceptible creases, edging ever closer to perfection.

“The approach is to improve,” Guardiola said on Tuesday. “Every single game can help us to improve what we want to do. For example, the last game [Sunday’s 3-0 win at Huddersfield Town] was not perfect in understanding the way to attack.

“It was difficult for many reasons. It depends on the way they are going defend, how we are going to attack more fluently. That’s what I want to see tomorrow.

“What happened in the first game, don’t think too much about it. Think about how we defend. How do we want to attack with our principles, our methods? By doing it that way, we can create more chances and do it better.”

“Do it better” than 9-0? That, it seems, is the challenge. In which case, be prepared for another disproportionately strong City line-up, another large margin of victory and another of the strangest semi-finals you are ever likely to see.