Confirmed Line-Ups: Huddersfield Town vs Manchester City (Carabao Cup Third Round) | OneFootball

Manchester City face Huddersfield Town at the Accu Stadium in their opening tie of the 2025-26 Carabao Cup campaign on Wednesday evening.

Pep Guardiola and co have recovered from their early season slump since the international break, with seven points in a week’s worth of games against Manchester United, Napoli and Arsenal restoring confidence in a new-look dressing room that has lost several key figures in the recent transfer window.

City fielded an unchanged starting XI against Manchester United, Napoli and Arsenal and Guardiola confirmed he will be making several changes to his lineup against Huddersfield Town, with one eye on Saturday’s Premier League meeting with Burnley.

After scoring his seventh goal in six games this season at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, City forward Erling Haaland complained of pain in his back and was taken off after 76 minutes whilst his side retained a slender advantage, which was cancelled by Gabriel Martinelli’s injury-time leveller.

Guardiola handed an update on Haaland’s fitness in a press conference on Tuesday and with no back-up striker in his ranks, the Manchester City manager is unlikely to have included Haaland in his plans for Huddersfield Town even if he were 100% fit.

The cup tie will give a chance to City’s players who have patiently warmed the bench since the international break, with summer signing James Trafford starting in goal for his boyhood side as Gianluigi Donnaruma gets a rest.

Trafford started in each of Manchester City’s opening trio of Premier League games after returning to the Etihad Stadium for £27 million from Burnley. However, the deadline day signing of Donnarumma has seemingly pushed the 22-year-old England international down Guardiola’s pecking order.

A shuffling of his ranks for the Carabao Cup will give Guardiola the timely opportunity to test motivation levels amongst those who have not started of late as Manchester City embark upon another long-drawn campaign, with an aspiration to correct last term’s wrongs and challenge on all fronts.

Ahead of Wednesday’s 19:45 kick-off at the Accu Stadium, Guardiola and Huddersfield Town manager Lee Grant have confirmed their respective lineups for the Carabao Cup third-round clash.

Huddersfield Town

Starting XI: Nicholls, Sorensen, Feeney, Wallace, Roughan, Vost, Kasumu, Harness, Redmond, Wiles (C), Charles.

Substitutes: Goodman, Ledson, Low, Taylor, Castledine, Radulovic, May, Ashia, Sway.

Manchester City

Starting XI: Trafford; Nunes, Stones (C), Ake, O’Reilly; Nico, Lewis, Mukasa, Bobb, Foden, Savinho.

Substitutes: Donnarumma, Dias, Braithwaite, Mfuni, Phillips, Reijnders, Bernardo, R. Heskey, J. Heskey.