CITY BOSS’S MESSAGE: YOU CAN BE HEROES!
LEE JOHNSON TELLS HIS PLAYERS TO WRITE THEIR NAMES IN HISTORY WITH CUP SHOCK
Bristol City boss Lee Johnson admits victory over Manchester City would be one of the biggest results in the club’s history.
The Robins host the Premier League leaders in their Carabao Cup semi-final tonight trailing 2-1 from the first leg.
Bristol City knocked Manchester United out in the quarter-final at Ashton Gate and are just a game from next month’s final at Wembley.
Johnson’s side are also chasing promotion to the Premier League but he conceded beating Pep Guardiola’s superstars would be huge.
“For me, and the club, the Premier League is the dream,” he said.
“But saying that as far as the team is concerned, for this team to beat Man City and the players they have got, it would rank as one of the best results in the club’s history.
“They’ll go down in folklore. Some have already from the Manchester United game. We’re going to enjoy it.
“We’ll keep going, we don’t want to be brave losers. We want to compete and competetowin.Theonlyway we will fulfil our ambitions is to get the results on the pitch. This is where the heroes are born.”
The Robins are fifth in the Sky Bet Championship but are winless in their last six matches, including the lastgasp defeat at the Etihad.
Bobby Reid’s penalty was cancelled out by Kevin De Bruyne before Sergio Aguero struck in stoppage time.
They ended a five-game losing run with a 0-0 draw at Derby on Friday that left them five points behind the top two.
Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, has hinted at changes while insisting his focus is on victory.
Guardiola said: “Of course we are going to try to see the best team as possible but then Bernardo Silva, (Ilkay) Gundogan, (Eliaquim) Mangala will not be able to play and that will not be fair. I will say we are going to go there and try and win the game and go to the final.”
Second-choice goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, who has featured in all domestic cup matches this season and starred in two penalty shootout victories, is another likely to feature.
Veteran midfielder Yaya Toure and youngsters Brahim Diaz and Oleksandr Zinchenko may also play. Zinchenko, a 21-year-old attacking midfielder, has made six appearances this season, mostly as a left-back through necessity, and impressed on his first start against Newcastle on Saturday.