Manchester City vs West Ham United, Capital One Cup Semi-Final 1st Leg: Open Thread

West Ham United will take a lot of encouragement from Sunderland’s shocking win against Manchester United last night in the League Cup semi-final. In many ways, today’s Capital One Cup game against Manchester City will be a true test for manager Sam Allardyce to see how he can rally his troops against formidable opposition especially at the Etihad Stadium, which has been a fortress for City.

Meanwhile, Manchester City will want to bounce back after their disappointing 1-1 draw against Blackburn Rovers from last Saturday’s FA Cup match.

Starting line-ups: 

Manchester City: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Kompany (C), Lescott, Clichy; Nasri, Yaya, Garcia, Silva; Negredo, Dzeko

Subs: Hart, Nastasic, Demichelis, Kolarov, Fernandinho, Milner, Lopes

West Ham United: Adrian, McCartney, Maiga, Taylor, Noble (c), O’Brien, Demel, Diame, Downing, J.Cole, Johnson

Subs: Jarvis, Rat, Collison, Morrison, Diarra, Jaaskelainen, C.Cole

For viewers in the United States, the match is being shown live in the United States beginning at 2:30pm ET beIN SPORT and DishWorld

Programming note: For viewers in the United States, Manchester City vs West Ham United is being shown exclusively on beIN SPORT and DishWorld. Even if you don’t have a TV subscription to beIN SPORT, you can access those channels via online streaming service DishWorld for $10/month. Read our review of DishWorld. And sign up for DishWorld via their website. Setup takes just minutes.

Before, during or after today’s game, join the conversation with fellow soccer fans in the comments section below.