Man City hope Aguero is fit for Champions League match

The Portuguese played down suggestions of a breakdown in relations with Costa after the incident which followed a touch-line spat during the Champions League win over Maccabi Tel Aviv.

“We’ll see on Kun (Aguero), he’s recovering from his heel”.

“I think 100% we can win [the semi-final] but you have to respect the other team”.

Pablo Zabaleta, Vincent Kompany and Samir Nasri also remain on the injured list while defender Eliaquim Mangala is suspended adding to Pellegrini’s headaches ahead of the lunchtime kick-off.

“I am not concerned about why we didn’t bring in another player because we have Kelechi, we have Raheem who can also play forward, so no problem”. “It is important than when you don’t have the important players you have a squad that is able to play the same way, and I think that is what we are doing so far”.

Standing in the way of an Everton and Liverpool final are Stoke and Manchester City who will not be easy opponents, especially Manchester City who will start warm favourites against Everton. The tie was wrapped up with 15 minutes to play when Phil Bardsley smashed home a low free kick with Stoke reaching their first League Cup semifinal since they won the trophy in 1972. “They now try to not always play with high balls”.

Leicester, on the back of Jamie Vardy’s record scoring streak, are this season’s gate-crashers and while no-one expects Claudio Ranieri’s side to still be hanging around at the business end of the season, they appear capable of ruffling a few more feathers.

Manuel Pellegrini claims Manchester City’s £265million Chinese takeaway will help them bid for the world’s best players.

Stoke manager Hughes told a news conference that City’s injury problems did not mean the leaders should be under-estimated.

Liverpool are away again on Sunday when they take on a Newcastle side that sit second-bottom in the table and though Klopp appears to have worked wonders since taking over earlier in the season, he says it’s just down to diligence. We have a strong team and everyone has confidence, the young guys that came in, the experienced guys, and we just have to continue like this.

Striker Peter Crouch limped off with a hamstring injury in midweek and is a doubt, but Mame Biram Diouf is set to return after missing the Wednesday game to attend the birth of his child.