Manchester City vs Liverpool: Haaland and Salah start as line-ups revealed for Carabao Cup clash

Manchester City host Liverpool in the last 16 of the Carabao Cup on Thursday (December 22). Team news for the game has been released.

Stefan Ortega starts in goal for City, with Rico Lewis, Manuel Akanji, Aymeric Laporte and Nathan Ake in defence. Rodri is in midfield alongside Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan. The much-anticipated return of Erling Haaland takes place, as he starts in attack with Riyad Mahrez and Cole Palmer.

Meanwhile, for Liverpool, Caoimhín Kelleher starts in goal, with James Milner, Joe Gomez, Joel Matip and Andy Robertson in defence. Stefan Bajcetic, Thiago Alcantara and Harvey Elliot are in midfield.

Mohamed Salah returns to action up top alongside Fabio Carvalho and Darwin Nunez.

Manchester City's Pep Guardiola and Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp to battle once again

Guardiola and Klopp's rivalry continues.

Guardiola versus Klopp has become one of English football's most enthraling managerial rivalries. The pair have been the Premier League's leading coaches since stepping foot in English football.

Guardiola has led Manchester City to four Premier League titles, one FA Cup, and four Carabao Cups. Meanwhile, Klopp has taken the Merseysiders to the UEFA Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup.

The two coaches have faced off 26 times, with Klopp boasting 12 wins to Guardiola's nine. They have settled for a share of the spoils on five occasions. The next chapter of their historic rivalry is set to unfold at the Etihad tonight, with both sides looking to get back to competitive football with a win.

About the author

Matthew is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who has been covering news, rumors and match reports for close to 3 years. Learning creative writing from University of Essex, he combined his skills and passion for football take up writing for the sport professionally.

Matthew always strives to go beyond a story and offer unique and lesser-known insights, while maintaining an unbiased tone in his articles. His reporting exploits at the company have helped him gain a humungous readership of 25 million, with one of his articles raking in a whopping 724,000 reads.

A Manchester United fan since childhood, Matthew admired Sir Alex Ferguson for his loyalty and brave coaching style. His favorite footballer is Thierry Henry, believing the Frenchman to be uniquely talented and charismatic. An ardent Three Lions fan, England's penalty shootout win over Colombia in 2018 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment of all time, and he believes that Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe will have a Ballon d’Or duopoly after Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

He also follows his local EFL League Two clubs AFC Wimbledon and Sutton United, and spends his free time watching and writing about professional wrestling. He also likes to work out, watch movies and go for night outs.

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Edited by Matthew Guyett