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Next Wednesday, Manchester City head to Burton Albion in the Carabao Cup knowing they are all but guaranteed another Wembley appearance.

Next Tuesday, Manchester City Under-21s head to Sunderland in the Checkatrade Trophy knowing that they are two rounds away from an historic Wembley appearance.

Both offer welcome opportunities for the club's young players but Pep Guardiola must decide where he wants to use his best prospects.

Normally, this would not be a question: the first team takes priority.

That has (rightly) been the case all season as the two competitions have regularly been played in the same week. The best youngsters have been given chances to impress Guardiola while the others have gone to the U21s. For instance, Eric Garcia was not made available for the Checkatrade win at Rochdale last week because he started the following night at home to Burton.

But next week offers a chance for the manager to take a different approach.

The trip to Burton, cup semi-final though it is, is as close to a non-event as you can get in football. Leading 9-0, it would take a disaster of nuclear proportions for the Blues not to go through - and there are also players from the first-team squad to call upon.

The trip to Sunderland will hold much more intrigue. Jack Ross's side are eight places above Burton in the league and managed a crowd of more than 16,000 for their win over Newcastle U21s in the last round. While they may not reach similar numbers for City's academy side, tickets have been set at £5 for adults and £1 for under-16s and over-65s and even their lowest crowds in the competition have been bigger than the capacity at the Pirelli Stadium.

(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)

Guardiola has regularly bemoaned the lack of competitive football at youth level in his wish for B teams. "The second team is playing in a poor league in terms of competitiveness and it’s difficult for them to visualise spending more years here playing in front of 10 people," he said last month.

"It’s no competition."

City players have spoken previously about the benefits of going up against experienced players and hostile crowds and even if Sunderland do not field a full-strength side, Tuesday's fixture represents one of the most competitive games the academy will face all season.

Whether it is important enough to test City's brightest prospects on Wearside rather than in Staffordshire remains to be seen, but at a time where there is more scrutiny on opportunities for youngsters it will hopefully at least give Guardiola pause for thought.