Man City Manchester City

Saints Southampton

TEAM NEWS

Pep Guardiola has made eight changes for this evening’s FA Cup semi-final clash with Southampton.

Only Rayan Cherki, Matheus Nunes and Rayan Ait-Nouri keep their places from the last game at Burnley as we prepare to face the Saints in the 17:15 (UK) kick-off at Wembley Stadium.

John Stones comes in as captain while there’s a welcome return to the XI for Mateo Kovacic who makes his first start of the season.

City have made this stage by beating Exeter City, Salford City, Newcastle United and Liverpool while Southampton have seen off Doncaster Rovers, Leicester City, Fulham and Arsenal.

The Blues are looking to reach a fourth successive FA Cup final - which would be a record!

The winner of tonight’s encounter will face either Chelsea or Leeds, who play tomorrow, in the showpiece next month.

TEAMS

CITY XI: Trafford, Nunes, Stones (C), Ake, Ait-Nouri, Nico, Kovacic, Reijnders, Cherki, Foden, Marmoush

Subs: Donnarumma, Haaland, Doku, Guéhi, Silva, Savio, O’Reilly, Khusanov, Lewis

SOUTHAMPTON XI: Peretz, Bree, Harwood-Bellis, Wood, Welington, Jander, Bragg, Fellows, Azaz, Scienza, Stewart

Subs: Long, Quarshie, Jelert, Charles, Matsuki, Robinson, Edozie, Archer, Larin

When and where

Pep Guardiola’s side travel to Wembley Stadium on Saturday 25 April with kick-off scheduled for 17:15 (UK).

The game will be shown live in the UK via Now TV, Prime Video UK, BBC One, TNT Sports 1, BBC iPlayer and HBO Max.

You can also keep across all of the action via mancity.com and our official app, as well as the key moments on X/Twitter: @ManCity.

Supporters living around the world can find out how they can tune in via our global TV listings below, courtesy of liversoccertv.com.

Next Fixture

All fixtures

Sat 25 Apr

FA Cup

Man City

17:15

BST

Saints

App Coverage

As always, the official Man City app has all bases covered for our trip to Wembley.

Our Matchday Centre gets under way at 15:15 (UK), providing text updates, stats and analysis across the evening.

From kick-off you can enjoy live audio commentary from Alistair Mann and Michael Brown, while those with push notifications turned on will also be alerted to all the key moments as they unfold.

For a guide on how to personalise those notifications to a specific City team, click here.

A match report and reaction from Pep Guardiola and players alike can be accessed soon after the final whistle, with highlights available from 12:00 on Sunday 26 April.

Opposing Manager - Tonda Eckert

Previously Eckert has coached at the likes of Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig at Academy level, and was most recently Assistant First Team Coach at Serie A side Genoa CFC before making the move to the South Coast of England.

The German’s Academy level success includes a UEFA Youth League triumph with RB Salzburg’s Under 18s, whilst he also spent time as First Team Coach at Barnsley in the 2020/21 SkyBet Championship season.

He then joined the club initially as Under-21s Head Coach in July 2025.

During his interim period he led the Saints to four wins out of five in the Sky Bet Championship, a run that saw the club climb up the table and pick up a total of 12 points from 15 available.

Before being appointed First Team Head Coach on a permanent basis in December 2025.

Previous meeting

City played out a 0-0 draw with the Saints, who were already confirmed as relegated from the Premier League on Saturday May 10 2025.

The result saw the Blues lose out on our hopes to finish in the top five. 

The Premier League’s basement club defended with their lives, but the Blues were far from our best on a hugely frustrating afternoon for Pep Guardiola’s side.

Despite dominating from start to finish, the home side repelled everything City could throw at them to take the point that meant they won’t equal the previous worst tally by a Premier League club.

Last time out

City went top of the Premier League table for the first time since August after a 1-0 win over Burnley at Turf Moor.

The winning goal came after just five minutes with Erling Haaland grabbing his 35th goal of the campaign, but despite numerous opportunities, the Blues had to settle for a narrow, but thoroughly deserved win.

The Clarets are relegated as a result while City climb to the summit to end Arsenal’s 200 day-stint at the top.

Global TV listings

Supporters around the world can find out how to tune in to watch the match live by clicking here, courtesy of livesoccertv.com.

Listings correct as of Saturday 25 April.