Manchester United hope to get the edge over rivals Manchester City when they meet in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final on Tuesday.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side have failed to score in two games as they prepare to host the Premier League champions, who haven't lost at Old Trafford since October 2016.
The Citizens, who are hoping to clinch a third consecutive League Cup, are riding a three-game winning run into the first leg but lost 3-2 at Wolverhampton Wanderers in their last away game.
City have lost only once in the competition since Pep Guardiola was appointed manager in 2016—against United, who went on to lift the trophy in 2017.
Date: Tuesday, January 7
Time: 8 p.m. GMT/3 p.m. ET
Venue: Old Trafford, Manchester, England
Live Stream: Sky Go (UK), ESPN+ (U.S.)
TV Info: Sky Sports (UK)
Odds
Manchester United: 4-1
Draw: 7-2
Manchester City: 7-10
Via Oddschecker.
Preview
The Carabao Cup will be considered an important competition for both managers, with league and European prospects less certain for the two teams.
City collected their third win in a row when they beat Port Vale 4-1 on Saturday to advance to the fourth round of the FA Cup, with Sergio Aguero and Phil Foden among the scorers:
The scale of their win, even against League Two opposition, was still impressive considering Guardiola fielded a largely second-string team at the Etihad Stadium.
The Evening Standard's James Robson said it was bad news for Solskjaer to see City rest most of their first-choice stars, even though the Norwegian did the same for United's 0-0 draw at Wolves:
Harry Maguire played the full 90 minutes in that clash despite appearing to pick up an injury during the first half.
Solskjaer told BT Sport (h/t United's official website) that the defender was a doubt to face City: "I don’t know. We were close to taking him off at half-time, but he battled through. Let’s see how he recovers. We hope so."
Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard each missed that trip to the west Midlands and hope to recover for the League Cup semi-final.
The Red Devils manager was particularly keen to avoid any illness this week, per Samuel Luckhurst of the Manchester Evening News:
Marcus Rashford came closest to scoring when he hit the crossbar during Saturday's stalemate, which resulted in another fixture being added to United's already-busy schedule in January.
Tom Bristow of the MEN appeared on Love Sport Radio and defended Solskjaer's side after they failed to record a single shot on target at Molineux, per WhoScored.com:
United will bear a large responsibility to do more in attack on Tuesday at Old Trafford, where City triumphed 2-0 in April on their last visit.
The second leg will take place on January 29 at the Etihad Stadium.
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