Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola will have to use the depth of his team against Liverpool in the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday, with both Kyle Walker and Kevin De Bruyne reportedly ruled out due to injury. Both City and Liverpool had almost complete lineups to choose from last weekend in their epic 2-2 draw with Etihad.
Both contenders for the Premier League title face Wembley this weekend in another exciting draw for a place in the FA Cup final. Between the two matches and the two teams played the rematch of their respective quarterfinals of the Champions League.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has managed to remove a number of regular players from the first team such as Virgil van Dyke and Mohamed Salah from the starting lineup and their 3-3 draw with Benfica was enough to advance to the semi-finals. City faced a much tougher test against Atletico Madrid, with the team of Guardiola holding a weak lead of 1-0 from the first game.
This meant that Guardiola showed a strong starting XI with De Bruyne, Joao Cancello, Walker, Aymeric Lapor and Phil Foden, all of those who played from the first minute. The Belgian national was forced to drop out with an ankle injury to Walker, and then also with a blow a moment later.
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City still had enough to keep Atletico’s tenacious team and advance to the Champions League semi-finals, but the physical match left a mark on his team. Speaking after the match, Guardiola admitted that we are in big trouble with the injuries of De Bruyne and Walker.
“We played three days ago, now we have a lot of injuries, I don’t know what will happen in the coming weeks,” he said.
Now RMC Sport claims that both players were eliminated from the FA Cup semi-final clash with Liverpool this weekend. The report states that De Bruyne will not return for at least 10 days, which excludes him from the next two Premier League games against Brighton and Watford.
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But he may be on the line to return in time for the Champions League match against Real Madrid on April 26. It is not clear how long Walker will be out, but it is said that he will definitely not play against Liverpool.
This probably means that Nathan Ake will take the place of Walker again, as the 27-year-old player impressed in the second half against Atletico. Alexander Zinchenko would be another opportunity to play in Walker’s place, but his last appearance was against Sporting Lisbon last month.
While De Bruyne and Walker will not be available, Guardiola should be able to welcome back Ruben Diaz, who has missed City’s last eight games with a kick.
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