Manchester City's injured captain Vincent Kompany will return to the team ahead of schedule, but will miss Wednesday's League Cup semi-final against Everton, manager Manuel Pellegrini said on Tuesday.
City's influential Belgian centre-back has endured an
injury-plagued season, with his latest setback ruling him out of action
since Dec. 26.
Kompany's return from a persistent calf injury in two weeks
instead of six will come as a relief to a team who always seem to
struggle defensively in his absence.
City have kept clean sheets in seven of the nine Premier League
games that Kompany has featured in this season, compared to just four in
14 without him.
"I don't think Vincent will be out for six weeks -- he will return in a couple of weeks," Pellegrini told reporters.
The Chilean also confirmed that Joe Hart would be replaced by back-up keeper Willy Caballero against Everton and that the Argentine would retain his place for Saturday's FA Cup clash at Aston Villa.
Everton go into the semi-final with a 2-1 advantage from the
first leg, but Pellegrini is confident his side have what it takes to
secure the 1-0 home win that is the minimum needed to see them through
to Wembley.
"It's the third time we'll play Everton in one month -- we know their team," he said.
"The most important thing is to try to play another final at
Wembley. That is our target. After we lost to Everton 2-1, I said that
if we don't qualify for the final, it's not because of that game but
because we can't win at home at least 1-0.
"Maybe Everton haven't been in a final for many years and they
will be motivated but our team will do all they can to get there too,"
Pellegrini added.
0 comments:
Post a Comment