Newcastle United go with five at the back: Team news to face Manchester City in Carabao Cup semi-final second leg

Newcastle United are ready to take on Mission: Impossible as they look to overturn a 2-0 deficit at the Etihad Stadium against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg.

The hosts won comfortably at St James' Park last month, and history would suggest that they're very likely to progress tonight given the fact that Newcastle have never won at the Etihad Stadium, and haven't even scored there in their last four attempts.

Still, Newcastle are often at their best when they're wearing the underdog tag, so who knows what will happen tonight.

To give Newcastle the best chance of pulling off a miracle, Eddie Howe has been tweaking his lineup once again.

Eddie Howe has tweaked the formation

As expected, Aaron Ramsdale comes in for Nick Pope, but of the changes we predicted, that was the only one we got right.

Eddie Howe has gone with five at the back with Kieran Trippier and Lewis Hall flanking a back three of Dan Burn, Sven Botman and Malick Thiaw.

Sandro Tonali partners Joe Willock and Jacob Ramsey in midfield with Anthony Gordon and Nick Woltemade ahead of them.

Manchester City look very dangerous

Willock may play out wide, leaving Tonali and Ramsey as a midfield duo, but we expect the formation to be pretty fluid.

Antoine Semenyo starts for Man City, looking to continue his run of form, while Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki have to make do with a place on the bench.

Even with those two and Jeremy Doku missing, this City side looks strong. Hopefully, one day Newcastle will have a squad like that.