Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe has stated that his side will take the Carabao Cup very seriously.

Bournemouth will square off against Middlesbrough in the Round of 16 of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night. Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola recently labelled the competition as a waste of energy, but Howe says winning the cup means a whole lot more to smaller clubs like his own.

The Cherries boss told the Daily Echo: "I think it's all about your club and how it is perceived at your individual club. I can't speak for him (Guardiola) and his club as they will have different objectives to us.

"For us it's about progressing in the league and moving higher. That's the absolute priority but to win every game is our aim.

"The next game is in a cup competition and it gives us the chance to get into the quarter-finals, which we haven't progressed beyond in our history, so I think we have to view it slightly differently.

"We are a group who haven't won a domestic competition together so our objectives are totally different.

"Playing at Wembley to win a cup competition would be totally different to when we played there against Tottenham in the league. There's so many incentives for us."