Brentford travel to Etihad Stadium to face eight-time winners Manchester City in the quarter-final of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday evening (7.30pm kick-off GMT), live on Sky Sports.
The Bees have defeated Bournemouth, Aston Villa and Grimsby Town in this year's competition, while Pep Guardiola's side have progressed from away ties against Huddersfield Town and Swansea City.
Analysis, team news, match officials and more. Here's everything you need to know ahead of the game.
Pre-match analysis
Stephen Gillett, Playmaker Stats: The intriguing no.9 battle at the Etihad
Brentford travel to Etihad Stadium to take on Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in the quarter-final of the Carabao Cup - and it’s impossible to ignore the heavyweight duel between the Premier League’s leading marksmen.
In an era of sky-high squad numbers, Wednesday’s mouth-watering tie pits two old-fashioned number nines against one another.
City hitman Erling Haaland and Bees striker Igor Thiago are the only players to reach double figures in the Premier League this term, and the midweek meeting between the record-breaking Norwegian and the free-scoring Brazilian promises to be epic, should they both feature.
Haaland’s double in Sunday’s 3-0 win at Crystal Palace took him to 22 goals in 23 club appearances this season, and offered a sliver of revenge for a City side still smarting from their FA Cup final defeat to the Eagles in May.
A thumping, textbook header and an ice-cold penalty at Selhurst Park lifted Haaland to 17 league goals - and at this stage of the campaign it’s almost impossible to find an attacking metric he doesn’t dominate.
He may average shy of 12 passes a game and take fewer touches per 90 (22.6) than any player in City’s squad, but Haaland is, on current form, the best on the planet at putting the ball in the back of the net.
Surrounded by mercurial talents like Phil Foden, Jérémy Doku and Rayan Cherki, Haaland is thriving. Still only 25, he leads the Premier League for shots (57) and shots on target (31) while generating more xG per 90 (0.95) than any other player in the division.
The former Molde, RB Salzburg and Borussia Dortmund man has converted a scarily efficient 28.81 per cent of his attempts - but there is one Premier League forward who has had an even sharper eye for goal this term.
That man is November’s Premier League Player of the Month, Igor Thiago (31.83%).
Injuries limited Thiago to just two shots in the top flight last season, but the imposing 24-year-old has bounced back with a vengeance.
The Brazilian got the ball rolling with a confident penalty away at Nottingham Forest on the opening day of the campaign, and the goals have flowed ever since - 12 strikes from 17 appearances in 2025/26.
A thunderous finisher off either foot, Thiago has fronted a rough and ready Brentford attacking trio that also features Dango Ouattara and Kevin Schade.
Thiago has also shown the temperament and technique to convert from the spot for a Brentford team that leads the Premier League for penalties won (7) this season. The former Club Brugge and Ludogorets striker has found the net from 12 yards from five of those this term, his miss against Brighton the only blot on his copybook.
With the leading men cast, the stage is set for a pulsating cup tie.
Beyond the matchup between two of Europe’s most ruthless finishers, there are sub-plots galore to analyse - and the pros and cons of City’s ‘converted’ full-backs are especially interesting.
Outstanding as a no.10 at academy level, Nico O’Reilly has quickly made a name for himself at left-back, while Matheus Nunes has impressed in the other full-back slot having been converted from a box-to-box no.8.
O’Reilly has two goals and four assists this season, while Nunes laid on Haaland’s opener at Palace last weekend. Physically superb, the pair possess technical skills far beyond those of a more traditional full-back, with the added bonus that they can invert into midfield areas to overload the opposition.
How Keith Andrews looks to outwit Guardiola on his managerial debut at the Etihad provides another absorbing storyline, and all the ingredients are in place for a compelling quarter-final in Manchester.
Scout report
Dan Long, Sky Sports: City back to their best
Manchester City climbed up to second with the 1-0 win at Brentford on 5 October. Erling Haaland’s goal after nine minutes was enough to seal back-to-back league wins for the first time since May.
Pep Guardiola’s side dominated possession, as expected, but the xG race showed there was little in it: Brentford 0.70-0.85 Man City. In nine Premier League meetings, the Bees have only lost by more than a one-goal margin twice.
Since then, aside from two narrow defeats to Aston Villa and Newcastle, City have looked their fearsome best. With seven league wins from the last nine, they have narrowed the gap to Arsenal to just two points.
Now, it seems to be a question of whether the Gunners - who looked to be pulling away before dropping points against Sunderland, Chelsea and Villa - can keep their composure under the intense pressure that is sure to follow.
Earlier this month, Guardiola took his team to Fulham. The game that panned out will go down in history, as the Whites stormed back and brought it from 5-1 down to 5-4. But a more pertinent milestone was hit that night at Craven Cottage.
Haaland scored his 99th Premier League goal in the 3-0 win over Liverpool on 9 November, but then drew blanks against both Newcastle and Leeds after the international break. But in opening the scoring after 17 minutes against Fulham, he finally became only the 35th member of the ‘100 Club’. He did it in just 111 games, too, obliterating the previous record and setting one that may never be beaten.
The Norwegian appears to be back to his deadly best after only 22 Premier League goals last season; he already has 17 and there are 22 games left to play this season.
As Tyrone Marshall alluded to in Hot off the Press, Omar Marmoush will likely lead the line in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup quarter-final. His severe lack of game time - and just four starts in all competitions - has come as a direct result of his team-mate’s incredible return. He only has one goal this term, so will be hungry to seize his chance.
And talking of chances, City will want to seize theirs when Brentford come to town.
Between 2013/14 and 2020/21, they won the League Cup in six seasons out of eight. But in the four campaigns that followed, there has been a significant drop-off; they have only progressed past round four once.
The fact they are sauntering in both the Premier League and Champions League means there will be bigger prizes on offer, but on the back of a season where they did not win any major silverware, Guardiola will not want to miss the chance to try and win the first trophy up for grabs in 2025/26.
In the Dugout
Pep Guardiola
Pep Guardiola was born an hour’s drive from Barcelona and joined the club’s La Masia academy in 1984, aged 13. He rose through the ranks and became a key part of Johan Cruyff’s team in the 1990s, before later playing under Bobby Robson and Louis van Gaal at the Nou Camp.
During 10 full seasons in the first team, the midfielder won 15 trophies, including six La Liga titles and the European Cup in 1991/92. He departed after 17 years in 2001 and played out the rest of his playing days with Roma and Brescia in Italy, Al Ahli in Qatar, and then in Mexico with Dorados, before calling it quits in 2006.
Before long, he was back in Spain as Barcelona B manager. Promotion in the first season, 2007/08, saw him selected to step up as Frank Rijkaard’s successor at Barcelona and, over the next four seasons, he established himself as one of the great minds of football. His tiki-taka style of play heralded an astonishing 14 trophies, six of which they won during a mind-blowing 2009.
The serial winner took a year’s sabbatical before joining Bayern Munich in June 2013. In Germany, he delivered three-straight Bundesliga titles, two German Cups, one European Super Cup and one Club World Cup - the third of a career that had spanned all of six years to that point. By the end of his time in Bavaria, Guardiola already knew his next move, having signed a three-year contract in February 2016 to replace Manuel Pellegrini that summer.
In the nine years since, the 54-year-old has become Manchester City’s most successful manager, with 18 trophies turning them into a footballing powerhouse; one of Europe’s undoubted elites. He is now the longest-serving manager in the Premier League and second only to Harrogate’s Simon Weaver as the longest-serving manager in the top four divisions.
Guardiola reached 500 games as City boss with a 2-0 win at Leicester City on 29 December last year and is now less than 50 games away from becoming the man to have managed the most City games in history, with only Les McDowall ahead of him on 592.
The Gameplan
With Tyrone Marshall, Manchester Evening News
Tyrone Marshall, senior football writer for the Manchester Evening News, explains how Pep Guardiola's side are likely to line up on Wednesday evening.
"I think it probably will be a 4-3-3, but in the league he has been mixing it up and playing in this very narrow formation recently, where there is only one winger playing in Jérémy Doku, but even he is picking up central positions quite a lot," Marshall told us this week.
"There have been four midfielders in there; you have got Nico González, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden and Rayan Cherki, and they have all been playing pretty central, with Cherki drifting a little bit wide or Bernardo wide to the right, Doku, theoretically, on the left, but playing very central.
"In the Carabao Cup, because he will make changes, I think it will probably be more of a traditional 4-3-3. I think people like Savinho and Oscar Bobb will play, which will mean wingers, so I think there will be more of that traditional shape.
"If Rodri is back, it will probably be a game for him to play, or at least come off the bench, but I think there are going to be question marks as to whether he will be back, in which case González probably plays in midfield."
Last starting XI v Crystal Palace in the Premier League (4-3-2-1): Donnarumma; Matheus Nunes, Rúben Dias, Gvardiol, O'Reilly; Bernardo Silva, González, Reijnders; Cherki, Foden, Haaland
Match Officials
Barrott in charge at the Etihad
Referee: Sam Barrott
Assistants: Timothy Wood and Nick Greenhalgh
Fourth official: Farai Hallam
Sam Barrott made his Premier League refereeing debut during the 2023/24 season - Fulham’s 3-1 victory over Sheffield United - having previously worked in the EFL and National League.
The West Riding-based official has taken charge of 18 games across all competitions this campaign, showing 76 yellow cards and one red.
Barrott was the man in the middle for Brentford's 3-1 Premier League victory against Burnley at Gtech Community Stadium in November.
There will be no VAR for Wednesday night's Carabao Cup quarter-final.
Last time out in the Carabao Cup
Grimsby Town 0 Brentford 5 (Carabao Cup, 28 October 2025)
Brentford booked their place in the quarter-final of the Carabao Cup with a comprehensive victory against League Two Grimsby Town at Blundell Park.
Classy finishes from Mathias Jensen and Reiss Nelson sandwiched a Keane Lewis-Potter header as the Bees went into the interval with a comfortable lead.
Fábio Carvalho won and converted a penalty to make it four and Nathan Collins nodded home following a Jensen corner to complete the scoring.