{"id":367482,"date":"2026-01-13T14:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T14:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/367482\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T14:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T14:18:14","slug":"pep-guardiola-jokes-he-is-losing-sleep-over-how-to-beat-eddie-howes-newcastle-in-carabao-cup-semi-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/367482\/","title":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola jokes he is losing sleep over how to beat Eddie Howe\u2019s Newcastle in Carabao Cup semi-final"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iCTyfe\">From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iCTyfe\">At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iCTyfe\">The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n<p>Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/pep-guardiola\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pep Guardiola<\/a> joked he had stayed up all night coming up with a tactical masterplan to outwit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/eddie-howe\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Eddie Howe<\/a> in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/carabao-cup\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Carabao Cup<\/a> semi-final. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/manchester-city\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Manchester City<\/a> face holders Newcastle at St James\u2019 Park on Tuesday and Howe had said: \u201cPep will tactically have something ready for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And Guardiola responded by quipping: \u201cI didn\u2019t sleep tonight thinking how my genius can create something for Eddie Howe.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>But Guardiola is expecting a difficult game. \u201cSince Eddie Howe took over, look how many games won in the last minutes,\u201d he said. \u201cThe pride is there, the crowd pushes. It has always been like that in this stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Guardiola has won the competition a joint record four times but has said he always thought the semi-final should be a one-legged affair.<\/p>\n<p>He is waiting to discover whether he will be able to pick Rayan Ait-Nouri after the Algeria international arrived back late from the African Cup of Nations because he missed his flight.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Wolverhampton-Wanderers-v-Manchester-City-Premier-League-Molineux-Stadium-tpfb20y5.jpeg\"  loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Rayan Ait-Nouri, right, is back after Algeria were knocked out of the Africa Cup of Nations\" class=\"sc-1mc30lb-0 ggpMaE inline-gallery-btn\"\/><\/p>\n<p>open image in gallery<\/p>\n<p>Rayan Ait-Nouri, right, is back after Algeria were knocked out of the Africa Cup of Nations (Bradley Collyer\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRayan Ait-Nouri has come back from Afcon but unfortunately lost the connection so arrived a little bit late,\u201d said Guardiola. \u201cWe will see in the training sessions how he feels and don\u2019t want to take risks of players getting injured again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He has no new injury concerns but will again be without Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol, John Stones and Savinho, while Omar Marmoush remains at Afcon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-367482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}