Manchester City gaffer Pep Guardiola expects a replicate gameplan from Manchester United in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final on Tuesday.
United made an exhilarating display of counter-attacking football to beat Guardiola’s side 2-1 in last month’s Premier League derby.
They meet at Old Trafford this week at the first leg of the semi-final and City boss Guardiola feels that he knows what to expect.
“It’ll be quite similar,” explained Guardiola. “Obviously at Old Trafford it’ll be quite different to here, but they are a team that are constructed to run.
“When they can run they’re among the very best teams, instead of only in England, I’d say, because of the pace they’ve – Daniel James, Mason Greenwood, Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard.”
He added, ” I have the feeling they are going to operate, one or two or three occasions, or as many occasions as you can, and we must decrease the errors in the build-up. We have to be ready for that but we have to do our game”
United ripped City’s defence on several occasions on 7 December and could have had much more to show for their efforts than first-half goals from Rashford and Martial.
Nicolas Otamendi pulled one back late on but United held on to inflict a defeat which dealt another blow to City’s faltering Premier League title challenge.
Despite United’s triumph, City dominated in terms of possession and opportunities created and Guardiola did not believe his team did much wrong.
Guardiola explained, “I am not planning to prepare our match only thinking, ‘do not let them conduct’.”
“Except the initial minutes when we surrendered three or four occasions when they could run, the rest of the game I enjoyed a lot the game we played along with the chances we generated in many situations.
“I would like to play quite similar.”
