Only Rodri, Phil Foden and Raheem Sterling keep their place, with Claudio Bravo, Joao Cancelo, Eric Garcia, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Angelino, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez all coming in.
David Silva and Kyle Walker aren’t fully fit and haven’t been risked. They remain in Manchester continuing their recoveries.
Ederson, Fernandinho and Kevin De Bruyne have all been rested, while John Stones, Sergio Aguero, Aymeric Laporte and Leroy Sane remained sidelined through injury.
City team
XI: Bravo, Cancelo, Harwood-Bellis, Garcia, Angelino, Rodrigo, Zinchenko, Foden, Bernardo, Mahrez, Sterling
SUBS: Carson, Gundogan, Jesus, Mendy, Otamendi, Bernabe, Diounkou
Oxford team
XI: Archer, Ruffels, Dickie, Moore, Gorrin, Brannagan, Taylor, Fosu, Long, Baptiste, Agyei
SUBS: Stevens, Cadden, Hall, Mousinho, Henry, Sykes, Mackie
City tactics
Guardiola rarely deviates from 4-3-3 and tonight is no exception.
Bravo starts in goal and is protected by a young back four. Cancelo will play at right-back, alongside an academy trio of Harwood-Bellis and Garcia at centre-half and Angelino at left-back.
Rodri will once again sit just in front of the defence and offer additional protection, with Zinchenko and Foden pulling the strings.
And up top, Sterling is likely to play through the middle, supported by Bernardo and Mahrez in wide areas.
It’s a youthful, energetic side and it will be fascinating to see how they cope with the industrial football thrown at them tonight at the Kassam.
The prize, of course, is a significant one: a place in the last four and Wembley in our sights. Can we make it three Carabao Cups in a row?
Stats
Oxford United and Manchester City met last season in the EFL Cup third round, with City winning 3-0 at the Kassam Stadium; it is their only previous meeting in the competition.
In all competitions, Manchester City have lost none of their past five away visits to Oxford United (W3 D2 L0) since a 1-0 defeat in September 1985 in a top-flight encounter.
This is Oxford United’s first quarter-final in the competition since the 1987-88 season, when they beat Manchester United to reach the semi-final where they were eliminated by Luton Town.
Since losing to Manchester United in October 2016, Manchester City have lost none of their 14 matches in the EFL Cup (W10 D4 L0), winning the competition in each of the previous two campaigns.
Oxford United manager Karl Robinson has knocked out Premier League opponents five times in his managerial career, seeing his side score exactly four goals in every match - MK Dons 4-3 Blackpool (League Cup, 2010), Norwich 0-4 MK Dons (League Cup, 2011), QPR 2-4 MK Dons (FA Cup, 2013), MK Dons 4-0 Manchester United (League Cup, 2014) and Oxford 4-0 West Ham (EFL Cup, 2019).
Manchester City have progressed from their past 12 EFL Cup ties against lower-league opponents since losing on penalties to Brighton in 2008-09 under Mark Hughes.
Oxford United’s eight goals in the EFL Cup this season have all been scored via different players (Brannagan, Sykes, Henry, Moore, Taylor, Fosu-Henry, Baptiste, Hall).
Sergio Aguero has been directly involved in 15 goals in 14 appearances against non-Premier League opponents in domestic cup games for Manchester City (12 goals, 3 assists).
