Man City XI vs Aston Villa: Confirmed team news, predicted lineup and latest injuries for Carabao Cup Final

Aymeric Laporte will miss Manchester City’s Carabao Cup Final clash against Aston Villa due to a hamstring injury – and is almost certain to be unavailable for their Champions League last-16, second-leg meeting with Real Madrid.

The centre-back will be out for up to a month, Pep Guardiola has confirmed. Laporte limped out of City’s dramatic 2-1 win against Real at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday.

Further tests have confirmed Guardiola’s worst fears, that he will be without the France defender for key games coming up.

He said: “It is a hamstring injury. I don’t know (how long it will be) three weeks or one month, more or less.

“We tried to avoid it and it’s happened. After four or five months injured it can happen.”

Real travel to the Etihad on March 17, with a place in the Champions League quarter-finals at stake.

Guardiola says his team will have to find a way to see off the Spanish giants in the absence of their best defender, who has missed much of the season with a serious knee injury.

“It’s not done, first of all,” he said. “I always thought it’s difficult to win at big clubs, but to beat them twice, normally it doesn’t happen. The big clubs can lose one game, but two – not often.

“We know how difficult it will be. We play a team with experience and to win two against a big team is a massive challenge.”

Better news for City is Leroy Sane’s imminent return from knee ligament damage.

He is part of the Under-23 squad taking on Arsenal on Friday night.

“I don’t want to put a target on it,” added Guardiola. “We’ll see the game. How does he feel to play against Arsenal, but it’s good.”

Man City predicted XI (4-3-3): Bravo; Walker, Fernandinho, Otamendi, Mendy; De Bruyne, Rodri, Silva; Bernardo, Aguero, Sterling