Newcastle United vs Manchester City live: Team news and line-ups before Carabao Cup semi-final

The line-ups should be released in the next five minutes, so here’s a reminder of the early team news for both sides…

Newcastle are without defenders Dan Burn, Emil Krafth , Fabian Schar and Jamaal Lascelles due to injury, with wingers Anthony Elanga and Jacob Murphy also doubtful due to knocks. Tino Livramento is out with a hamstring injury.

Man City also have defensive absentees, with John Stones, Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias all out injured. Phil Foden could return to the starting XI after being rested against Exeter.

Can the Magpies repeat last season’s feat and advance to the League Cup final?

The first leg ties will be played today and tomorrow, with second-leg matches taking place across 3/4 February.

As always the final will be held at Wembley, with the first final of the season coming on 22 March.

The other League Cup semi-final sees Arsenal take on Chelsea in a huge London derby.

Liam Rosenior will take charge of the Blues for just the second time tomorrow, and he faces one of the toughest tests in English football right now as he welcomes Mikel Arteta’s side to Stamford Bridge.

That match kicks off at 8pm tomorrow, with the second leg coming on 3 February at the Emirates.

These two sides have met a total of 158 times in the past, with City winning 67, Newcastle winning 55 and 36 ending as draws.

The most recent fixture saw the Magpies run out 2-1 winners at St James’ in the Premier League in November, but tonight’s hosts weren’t successful in either of their encounters last term, drawing 1-1 at home and losing 4-0 away.

The hosts come into the match off the back of a dramatic penalty shootout win over Bournemouth in the FA Cup at the weekend.

Their three Premier League matches before that yielded three wins, though the Magpies were at times unconvincing, notably in the dramatic last-gasp win over Leeds and even more so in the 1-0 loss to Man Utd on Boxing Day.

City have not lost in any of their last four matches, but while the 10-1 win over Exeter City in the FA Cup grabbed headlines, a series of three draws in the league – against Sunderland, Chelsea and Brighton – has seen them fall six points behind leaders Arsenal in recent weeks.

The Crystal Palace centre-half’s contract is up in the summer, and his preference had been to wait until then to move due to the reality he would have a range of better offers – both in football terms and financial. All of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich have been interested, as well as virtually every top English club, including Arsenal.

Manchester City face holders Newcastle at St James’ Park on Tuesday and Howe had said: “Pep will tactically have something ready for us.”

And Guardiola responded by quipping: “I didn’t sleep tonight thinking how my genius can create something for Eddie Howe.”

Speaking ahead of the match, Pep Guardiola said that “it’s not about winning or not winning trophies” for his side, but rather “it’s about how the team grows up, how the team is better”.

“Last season we didn’t deserve to win more than just one trophy [Community Shield], because we didn’t play good. The satisfaction to win a trophy when we are not playing good can happen – knock-out stages, being lucky. It’s not about that, believe me,” he explained.

“We are here to make the team play better. The satisfaction to make a good performance for ourselves, and our fans to say, ‘We had fun during 95 minutes’ – that is the point.

“And the next game, things that we can do better, do it better. That is the target, and all the time it has been like that. And when you are in that process, at the end you fight for the titles and can win it,” he added.

“The natural preference is a home game for the second leg because by then you have a clear understanding of what you need to do and have the home crowd with you,” said Eddie Howe ahead of this first leg.

“It’s not like that this time [round] so we need to give everything to try and impose ourselves on them in this home tie,” he added.

Howe explained that City “are the hardest team to play over two legs in this country”, adding that “Pep [Guardiola] will tactically have something ready for us, and we will have to be at our very best to get through”,

“They change and tinker a lot with the tactical set-up they have. They’re a difficult team to read and know how to plan and prepare for,” he added.