Manchester City travel to Ashton Gate for their League Cup quarter-finals against Bristol City on Wednesday evening and for the second year in a row, face each other at the same stage.
Gareth Taylor's side have gotten the better of Bristol 12 times out of 16 clashes scoring a total of 50 goals against the second-tier side. In their first time out in 2014, Bristol came home victorious with a 2-0 win.
However, the last time these two teams went head-to-head was in last year's Continental Cup quarter-finals. City won 3-1 despite being a goal behind early on. But Khadija Shaw and Vicky Losada secured the win for the Sky Blues who then went on to become 2022 League Cup Winners.
They come into the game after a one-all tie with Aston Villa on Saturday, extending their unbeaten run to 13 games in all competitions. Taylor said: “ If we get most of the elements of our play right, the score takes care of itself.
“It doesn’t guarantee you the win, but that was the disappointing part for me [against Aston Villa].
"We just didn’t play our normal game against a decent Aston Villa team who are completely different in terms of personnel this season and have some experienced players in there.
“A draw was probably a fair result. We knew we kind of let ourselves down a bit on the performance and that’s frustrating for all of us.”
Regarding player availability, Esme Morgan was subbed off at the weekend through injury and was absent for training in the week and is a potential miss for Wednesday's game alongside Demi Stokes.
Taylor said: “We need to monitor her [Morgan] over the next 24 hours. She didn’t train today [Monday] so at this moment in time she looks a doubt which is unfortunate because she’s an important player.”
He continued, “Demi is improving day by day, but this game might be a little too soon for her. Outside of that everyone has come through and trained today as normal.”
“We had a good honest conversation about areas where we can improve and the attitude in training has been top-class.
“Now we look forward to two different competitions in the space of a few days.”
After the midweek clash at Bristol, the Sky Blues face the fourth round of the FA Cup against Sheffield United at the Academy Stadium on Sunday January 29.
Other Quarter-final fixtures for the Continental Cup are:
- Liverpool vs West Ham on Wednesday 25th at 19:30
- Tottenham vs Chelsea on Wednesday 25th at 19:45
- Arsenal vs Aston Villa on Thursday 26th at 19:45
Win a pair of tickets to the Premier League or Women's Super League match of your choosing! Enter below. CLICK HERE
