Manchester City's academy will play Derby County at Pride Park in the Papa John's Trophy after being placed in Group F for the 2022/23 season. Brian Barry-Murphy's under-21s will face Wayne Rooney's Derby, who are in crisis after their relegation from the Championship last season.
Derby are still in administration and looking for new owners after a prospective buyer walked away this summer. Rooney remains in charge as the Rams prepare for League One, but their off-field problems have hampered their pre-season plans so far.
Also in City 's group are League Two sides Mansfield and Grimsby Town. Mansfield missed out on promotion last season as they were beaten in the play-offs, while Grimsby secured a return to the EFL at the first attempt as they were victorious in the National League play-off final.
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City will be looking to improve on last season's group stage exit, which was not helped by fixture clashes and first-team injury problems ruling many key academy players out of action.
City were comfortable winners at Scunthorpe on the opening game, but the trip to Doncaster clashed with the first team's Carabao Cup fixture with Wycombe, where eight academy players featured for Pep Guardiola's side.
That led to defeat at Doncaster, and a must-win game at Rotherham ended in a tough 5-0 defeat against the eventual winners and League One promotion winners.
City last played Mansfield in the competition in 2020, winning 3-0 at Field Mill, but have not played Grimsby or Derby as they have spent time outside of Leagues One and Two since Premier League academies joined the EFL Trophy.
The group games will be played between August 31 and October 19, with City playing all games away from home as per the competition rules that sees Premier League academy clubs play as visiting sides in the group stage.
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