Manchester City vs Liverpool - League Cup Semi-Final, 1st Leg

Manchester City and Liverpool met just over a week ago in the league at the Etihad Stadium, with the home side coming out 3-0 victors. The two teams will meet again tonight for the first leg of the League Cup Semi-Final. The winner of the tie after both legs have been played will have booked their place at Wembley for the final against a Championship side, a mouth-watering prospect of silverware for both teams. Crystal Palace hold a 1-0 advantage over Cardiff City as they prepare for the second leg next week, after narrowly winning the first leg last night. It has been somewhat of a tough week for both teams. Manchester City were dumped out of their second competition of the season at the first hurdle and on the way lost their captain, Vincent Kompany, to a four game suspension. City have also lost the Toure brothers to the African Cup of nations and may feel hard-done-by after Kompany€™s straight red against Manchester United in the FA Cup Third Round. The Belgian lost his appeal against the suspension and now misses both legs of the semi-final against Liverpool. Although the Reds eased past their opponents, Oldham Athletic and are through to the Fourth Round of the FA Cup, their 5-1 victory against the Latics was marred by a petty incident. One Liverpool fan was involved in an alleged racial exchange with Oldham player, Tom Adeyemi. This was the last thing that the once pristine, but now tarnished reputation of Liverpool Football Club needed, especially as they were trying to put the €˜Luis Suarez racial slur€™ incident to bed. If a police investigation on the fan wasn€™t enough bad press for the club, then the news that Stewart Downing being arrested for allegedly attacking his ex-girlfriend, might just be. Downing scored his first Liverpool goal in the last minute of the game against Oldham, but now faces his confidence and mentality on the pitch being knocked. Roberto Mancini takes what will be an under strength starting eleven, on his books, into tonight€™s fixture. Kompany and Yaya Toure, the core of the City team are both missing and Yaya€™s brother Kolo Toure is also absent. The news that David Silva may be a doubt for the game will boost Liverpool€™s confidence going into the match and to add to Mancini€™s woes, Edin Dzeko and Mario Balotelli are also a doubt. The only positive for the Citizens is the return of Gareth Barry to their starting eleven. Liverpool had the luxury of resting some of their players against Oldham on Friday and their solid back four of Johnson, Skrtel, Agger and Enrique, will be restored. Steven Gerrard is also likely to start, as Luis Suarez sits out his third game out of eight. City have to prove tonight that they can cope without some of their key players, but their challenge won€™t be easy against the most successful side in League Cup history, Liverpool.