Manchester City v Wycombe Wanderers - The Opposition

Holders Manchester City welcome League One side Wycombe Wanderers to Manchester, as they look to tighten their grip on the League Cup.

The blues have won the competition for the last four successuve seasons, but face a Wycombe side who are flying high in League One, but have fond memories of their last trip to the blue side of Manchester.

Wanderers completed a league double over City during the 1998/99 season during the blues darkest moment in their history, and City fans will be eager for a modicum of revenge against the Buckinghamshire outfit.

Form

Wycombe are currently fifth in League One, but sit just two points behind leaders Wigan Athletic. From their seven games played, Wycombe have won four and drawn two, with their only loss coming in a 3-1 defeat at Sunderland.

The visitors relied on penalty shoot-outs to reach this stage, after drawing 0-0 at Exeter and 2-2 at Stevenage. Against Exeter, Wycombe won the shoot-out 4-3, and scored all five as the knocked Stevenage out 5-3 in their second shoot-out.

Danger Men

Garath MaClearly is Wycombe’s top scorer with four goals from six matches, and has scored with 50% of his total shots. But Wycombe have a striker that is known in the Premier League by the name of Sam Vokes, who spent seven years at Burnley, before leaving in 2019. The former Claret has two goals from eight games, and averages around two shots per match.

Vokes has also weighed in with one assist this season, however the current playmaker is their veteran defender, Joe Jacobson. The left back has two assists from nine games and has created twelve chances so far, the highest in the team. He has attempted 318 passes, completing 169.

Jordan Obita, Sullay Kaikai and Daryl Horgan all have two assists each, with Kaikai having the greater pass accuracy at 75%.

Who’s The Boss?

Journeyman Gareth Ainsworth is the boss at Adams Park, and has been in charge since September 2012. The former midfielder has been with the club since 2009, making 118 appearances and scoring 17 goals.

Ainsworth has prescided over 466 games for Wycombe and has a win ratio of 39.1%

Last Time Out

April 1999 was the last time these two teams met, with City in the third division. Wycombe had already beaten the blues 1-0 in November, and City had lost just once in 21 matches. In front of a crowd of just under 30,000, the visitors were 2-0 up inside half an hour, and, although Shaun Goater pulled a goal back on the stroke of half-time, Wanderers held on for a famous victory and complete the double over the blues, the only one City suffered all season.