Source: TheGuardian
Oxford United v Manchester City: Carabao Cup quarter-final – live!
Live updates as League One side face Premier League championsGet the latest as Barcelona host Real Madrid in el clásico Scoreboard: follow all of tonight’s goals as they go inEmail Simon with any musings or tweet @Simon_Burnton 8.03pm GMT 16 mins: Sterling has the ball in the net, but the offside flag is up, the whistle has blown and everybody else has stopped playing. A replay suggests it was a very tight call. 8.01pm GMT 14 mins: A nice move from City ends with Angelino on the left, but his run is tracked and his cross deflected out for a corner, which is eventually cleared. 7.59pm GMT 12 mins: City are yet to make their superiority tell, or even to make it particularly evident. Foden surges down the left, but is forced to turn back, and the ball is eventually turned over. 7.56pm GMT 9 mins: A pass over the defence sends Sterling sprinting, but the only way past Dickie is by pulling his shirt, and Oxford get a free-kick. 7.54pm GMT 8 mins: Angelino takes on Sam Long on the left. The ball ends up deflecting out off Long’s fist, but the referee gives a goal kick. 7.53pm GMT 6 mins: Sterling lifts his shot over the wall, over the goal and into the fans, who cheer uproariously. 7.52pm GMT 6 mins: Sterling is fouled by Gorrin, 30 yards or so from goal. Shot incoming. 7.50pm GMT 4 mins: Oxford now break forward, and win the first corner of the game. It’s headed clear. 7.49pm GMT 2 mins: Angelino’s cross from the left is a little overstrong, and Mahrez can’t bring it under his spell. Oxford clear. 7.47pm GMT 1 min: Peeeeeeep! Manchester City get the game started. 7.46pm GMT Not silence, applause. Oxford’s fans stand and clap, and then the referee blows his whistle and they give a final roar. Kick-off time! 7.45pm GMT There will be a minute’s silence before kick-off for Jim Smith, the former Oxford manager. 7.42pm GMT And out they come! It’s windy and rainy, but Oxford might need more levellers than that. Action imminent. 7.41pm GMT The players are in the tunnel! It looks a bit cramped in there, so they’ll be keen to get going. 7.36pm GMT Karl Robinson has a chat about Oxford’s prospects this evening. In brief: not great.You always have a puncher’s chance. Not a strong one. Listen, you can stand here and say you have a great chance or a rubbish chance. The gulf between the teams is glaringly obvious but we enjoy the challenge and embrace the opportunity to play against one of the best teams in the land. This is going to be as difficult as it gets. The way we try to play, we have a big pitch, a nice pitch, a flat pitch, and for once this season it probably isn’t going to work in our favour.I love [Pep’s] style. It’s something I do gravitate towards. Only our players maybe aren’t as good, and the manager’s nowhere near as good. You’d be lying if you said he wasn’t somebody who’s at the top of the tree when it comes to our industry. 7.22pm GMT Mikel Arteta, as confirmed by Pep Guardiola yesterday, is in Oxford this evening. If the pictures are anything to go by, he seems to have a lot on his mind. 7.05pm GMT Here are the teams again, this time in purely textual form.Oxford United: Archer, Long, Moore, Dickie, Ruffels, Baptiste, Gorrin, Brannagan, Agyei, Taylor, Fosu. Subs: Cadden, Hall, Jack Stevens, Mousinho, Henry, Sykes, Mackie. Man City: Bravo, Joao Cancelo, Garcia, Harwood-Bellis, Jose Angelino, Zinchenko, Rodri, Foden, Bernardo Silva, Sterling, Mahrez. Subs: Gundogan, Gabriel Jesus, Mendy, Otamendi, Carson, Bernabe, Dionkou. Referee: Andrew Madley. 6.52pm GMT The team sheets are in! City have an inexperienced central defence, composed as it is of 17-year-old Taylor Harwood-Bellis and 18-year-old Eric García (both have birthdays next month). The rest of the team, though, is pretty familiar. As rumoured, the returning Oleksandr Zinchenko and Angelino both play.Here it is... your #OUFC team to take on @ManCity in tonight's @Carabao_Cup quarter-final at the Kassam Stadium: pic.twitter.com/v4Hcvyq8EOAnd here it is, your team for tonight! XI | Bravo, Cancelo, Garcia, Harwood-Bellis, Angeliño, Rodrigo, Zinchenko, Foden, Bernardo, Mahrez, Sterling (C)SUBS | Carson, Gundogan, Jesus, Mendy, Otamendi, Bernabe, Diounkou⚽️ @HaysWorldwide #ManCity pic.twitter.com/O98HbqPXs6 6.06pm GMT Hello world! Manchester City’s two previous line-ups in this competition have been, from Oxford’s perspective at least, distressingly strong. Claudio Bravo has started in goal each time, though a 36-year-old with three league winners’ medals and a Champions League to his name can hardly be considered gauche, while 18-year-old Eric García played both games at centre-back – one alongside Taylor Harwood-Bellis, who is only 17 – and the similarly youthful midfielder Tommy Doyle got a start in the 3-1 home win against Southampton in the fourth round. Otherwise is has been first-teamers all the way, and two straightforward victories – they were 3-0 up at half-time against Preston in the first, 2-0 at half-time against the Saints in the second. Going a little further back, they won 3-0 at the Kassam Stadium last September, a game so one-sided that the home side had no shots on target and only one of any type, to City’s 18. It was probably unnecessary for the Oxford manager, Karl Robinson, to warn fans not to “expect us to come out of the traps to be all energy and dominating”, even if his side have only lost once in the last three months (though that was on Saturday, at MK Dons).When Oxford United and Manchester City collide on Wednesday, entertainment is unlikely to be in short supply. In the manager’s office at the League One club’s Kassam Stadium, the E-word is the buzzword as Karl Robinson explains how he is looking forward to a reunion with Pep Guardiola, this time in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.Only West Brom and Peterborough have outscored Oxford in the Football League this season and, in the top flight, only Leicester, Liverpool and City have a healthier goals-for tally. Oxford have not found the net in their past three matches but perhaps they are keeping their powder dry. Continue reading......read full article
