Manchester City vs Liverpool preview: Foden ruled out, whilst Haaland remains a doubt

By Ric Turner, Fri 31 March 2023 16:10


Manchester City vs Liverpool preview: Foden ruled out, whilst Haaland remains a doubtDecision to be made on Norwegian striker after training today

Manchester City vs Liverpool

Competition: F.A. Premier League

Date: 12.30pm, Sunday 1st April 2023

Venue: Etihad Stadium, Manchester

Referee: Simon Hooper Assistants: A Holmes, S Long Fourth Official: G Scott VAR: J Brooks

Odds: City 8/13, Draw 3/1, Liverpool 4/1

Tickets: Sold out

TV: BT Sport

Manchester City

Manager: Pep Guardiola

Squad (from): Ederson, Ortega, Carson, Walker, Dias, Stones, Ake, Laporte, Akanji, Lewis, Gomez, Phillips, Gundogan, Grealish, Rodri, De Bruyne, Silva, Palmer, Perrone, Haaland, Alvarez, Mahrez

Injured: Foden

Doubtful: Haaland

Suspended: None

Form guide: WWWWW

Liverpool

Manager: Jurgen Klopp

Squad (from): Alisson, Adrian, Kelleher, Gomez, van Dijk, Konate, Tsimikas, Robertson, Matip, Phillips, Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho, Milner, Henderson, Jones, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Elliott, Carvalho, Firmino, Salah, Gakpo, Jota, Nunez

Injured: Ramsay, Bajcetic, Thiago, Diaz, Keita

Doubtful: Nunez, Tsimikas

Suspended: None

Form guide: LLWWD

Phil Foden misses the clash with Liverpool after undergoing surgery on his appendix, and will be out for two to three weeks. Erling Haaland is a major doubt after withdrawing from international duty with Norway, but manager Pep Guardiola didn't rule him out entirely at Friday's press conference

“Erling is recovering,” said Guardiola. “This afternoon is the last training session then we'll see how he feels.

“We will see today. Again, the doctors and especially the player will decide how does he feel.

"Yesterday I spoke with him and he feels good. But we will see.

"Life is risk in these stages. You have to take it. We score a lot of goals this season. He scored an incredible amount of goals. But in the past always we scored a lot of goals.”

Liverpool currently sit in sixth place in the league, but Guardiola is expecting another difficult game against Jurgen Klopp's side.

“We know each other many years, so same managers many years, so one more [game]," he said. 

"Liverpool remain an exceptional team. My opinion doesn’t change for a season that had up and downs. Every team can have these up and downs."

City won their last home game against Liverpool 3-2 in the Carabao Cup in December, with Erling Haaland, Riyad Mahrez and Nathan Ake netting for the Blues. Overall City have won 51 of the 194 games played against the Reds, with 50 draws and 93 defeats.

Predicted line-up: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Stones, Ake, Rodri, Silva, De Bruyne, Grealish, Mahrez, Alvarez

Score prediction: City 2 Liverpool 1