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This thread has been created to discuss all things related to the Carabao Cup (also known as the EFL Cup).






This thread has been updated to accommodate the 2023/23 season



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Here are the Round 3 Carabao Cup games being played this evening Wednesday 22nd September 2021:

Brighton and Hove Albion vs Swansea City      

Arsenal vs AFC Wimbledon         

Chelsea vs Aston Villa         

Manchester United vs West Ham United

Millwall vs Leicester City      
   
Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Tottenham Hotspur



Here is how I think the games will end  ;D

Brighton and Hove Albion 2-0 Swansea City      
Arsenal 4-2 AFC Wimbledon         
Chelsea 3-1 Aston Villa         
Manchester United 2-0 West Ham United
Millwall 1-1 Leicester City         
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur

RESULTS:

Brighton and Hove Albion 2-0 Swansea City      
Arsenal 3-0 AFC Wimbledon         
Chelsea 1-1 Aston Villa (Chelsea won 4-3 on penalties)
Manchester United 0-1 West Ham United
Millwall 0-2 Leicester City         
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-2 Tottenham Hotspur (Tottenham won 3-2 on penalties)

@CryptoCurrencyKing Manchester United lost and Ole was like we  gave it a go,  (https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12414148/carabao-cup-hits-and-misses-is-having-a-go-really-good-enough-for-manchester-united) and as a Manchester United fan this is the new reality I should be happy with :(. Also I’m not sure why Manchester United B team played so bad, because they had so much experience between them, and yet they failed to qualify for the next round.

The next round of 16 is October 26. Still 1 month to go.

1. Arsenal vs Leeds United
2. Burnley vs Tottenham Hotspur
3. Chelsea vs Southampton
4. Leicester City vs Brighton and Hove Albion
5. Preston North End vs Liverpool
6. Queens Park Rangers vs Sunderland
7. Stoke City vs Brentford
8. West Ham United vs Manchester City

There are no matches between the big clubs yet, the EFL may not be a priority for the big clubs. At the beginning, I saw a lot of players who were fielded as substitutes.

Source: https://www.efl.com/carabao-cup/fixtures-and-results/fixtures/

I think the EFL is very difficult for betting. Like the Chelsea - Villa match last night. If it was a league match, an easy Chelsea win. But an EFL match, you know Chelsea will field a weakened side... and a weakened Chelsea side is still likely to beat Villa, but it's much more uncertain. So hard to predict. Even when you see the line-ups, that's not a huge help, as there might be some good players there who are just using it as match practice to get fit for bigger tournaments, and so aren't performing at 100%.

The main players will definitely be reserved to start in the EPL and also the UCL later so the core players will not be fully featured in the EFL cup.
Of course the coaches will play layer 2 for this competition so it's probably difficult to predict even if it's a big team that plays, for example Manchester United who had to lose in Westham, while the players are only part of the core players so I don't think this is the EFL main priority.
Even I didn't bet on yesterday's match.

What an interesting match between Chelsea and Southampton. Southampton seems strong, coordinated and well played than Chelsea tonight. Southampton is good at disturbing big clubs than smaller clubs not surprised about tonight match. The match is likely to end in a draw if care is not taken. Southampton is prepared in tonight match against Chelsea

The Manchester City team has been knocked out of the Carabao Cup for the first time in five years. Everything changes at some point.

So far, we have seen that football is a game of surprises. Now other teams must win as well.
Will Chelsea remain the only big team left after winning the Carabao Cup this year? There is no time to lose hope while Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Leister are still in the cup.

Spurs have qualified for the quarter finals,but what really please me was not seeing Deli Alli and Harry winks, there dissaperance show that they are not even doing there best to get into the first team.so is better if they are sold this January and get proper replacement to help the team, I was told Newcastle is interested in both players (Deli Alli, Harry winks.)so let's make a deal.

After successfully defeating Manchester United in the third round, West Ham again appeared surprising by successfully eliminating Manchester City on penalties in the fourth round.

Here are the results of the fourth round match and the teams that made it to the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup 2021/2022 season:


Fourth Round Results :

1. Chelsea 1-1 Southampton  ( Chelsea win)
2. Arsenal 2-0 Leeds United
3. QPR 0-0  Sunderland (Sunderland win)
4. Burnley 0-1 Tottenham
5. Leicester City 2-2 Brighton ( Leicester City win)
6. Preston North End 0-2 Liverpool
7. Stoke City 1-2 Brentford
8. West Ham  0-0 Manchester City (West Ham win)


List of Qualified Teams:

1. Chelsea
2. Arsenal
3. Sunderland
4. Tottenham
5. Leicester City
6. Liverpool
7. Brentford
8. West Ham

West Ham played very well, although Manchester City created much more of the better chances between the both of them.
They're doing well when it comes to keeping clean sheets lately, West Ham goal keeper was in an excellent form some nights yesterday night.

You should be a Chelsea fan to say or think they will be the only big tram left, you're nothing but simply biased on how you view football.
Arsenal has a good history when it comes to minor Trophies like this.

I believe that Pep would be very happy to be knocked out, because this means he has one less midweek fixture to deal with and of course he won’t openly say it, but when you’re gunning for the premier league title and champions league then being in this competition is not important.

Also West Ham seems very determined this year, and I do believe they should win at least one trophy, but the season is long and they’ll have to keep this momentum only then can they win some trophy this season.

Pep isn't a loser; he'll give everything he's got to win any prize that comes his way, and he's won the league cup three times in a row. Given the high level of competitiveness in the league today, I'm sure the setback came as a shock; every cup is now essential in the league.

Not sure about this the league is so competitive now it's than ever, they may not survive the next wrong of the fixture. .

Carabao Cup Semi-Final 1st leg - 13th January 2022:

Liverpool vs Arsenal


This is the first leg of the semi-final and both teams will be without first team players. Some are on international duty, others are injured and others have to self-isolate because of COVID.

I think this game will end with a 2-1 victory for Liverpool  ;D

@JollyGood Liverpool are without  Salah (https://www.sportingnews.com/us/soccer/news/afcon-premier-league-players-salah-mane-return-epl/nx5be6asrv1n1pjz6heic8mrf) and this is an excellent opportunity for Arsenal to try their luck and win this fixture, hence I would say the same scoreline but with different team i.e. Arsenal. Lastly I feel that Arteta may be keen to win a trophy and this tournament is an excellent chance of winning it, hence I feel Arsenal should be able to beat Liverpool.

Liverpool 0-0 Arsenal


The game ended with a goalless draw. Even though Arsenal had Xhaka sent off after just 24 minutes for dangerous play on Jota, for some reason Liverpool could not make that count. The return leg will be at Arsenal and they will surely be difficult to beat unless Liverpool put out a full first team. I think Liverpool might regret not taking advantage of this game.

If I'm not mistaken, Liverpool not only failed to score a single goal in this match, but even failed to land a single shot on goal. It can be said that the removal of Jak played a bad joke with the Liverpool players and they could not find the keys to the Arsenal team. Or we can say that the early removal of their player forced Arsenal to change the model of their game and forced them to focus even more on defending their own goal. Even more, at the beginning and in the middle of the half Arsenal played at times even better than the opponent and it was completely unnoticeable that the team had one less player. And only at the end of the match, when the Arsenal players got tired, Liverpool put pressure on the opponent's goal and had chances to score the ball.

Liverpool missed a chance to win vs 10 Arsenal's players in Anfield. They are lacking the service of both Salah and Mane and they will play most likely with the same players next game but maybe with another strategy.
Arsenal is doing quite good lately and they might pass Liverpool but I doubt they could beat Chelsea. For Liverpool, once they succeed to pass Arsenal, they might have a better chance to beat Chelsea.
Regarding the actual performance, I think Chelsea has better chances than the other teams.

Edit: fixed the text

Arsenal vs Liverpool in the 2nd leg of the semi-final will take place on Thursday 20th January 2022.

I think Arsenal are in an excellent position to win the game if Liverpool play a weakened side and are capable of causing an upset even if Liverpool play a strong starting 11. They have been slowly improving under Arteta and are now fighting for a top 4 finish, that is how far they have come under their manager Arterta and he deserves a lot of credit for steadying the ship at Arsenal. I was one of his biggest critics not that long ago but I have to give him credit.

As for Liverpool, they can easily play with inexperienced players to rest regular first team players and even win those games to get to this stage of the competition but they should not underestimate Arsenal because Liverpool are fighting on multiple fronts to win trophies but for Arsenal this is probably their best chance win anything in the 2021/22 season.

The final will take place between Chelsea and the winners of the Arsenal vs Liverpool game  ;D

It was a boring match for me to be honest. The main reason was that we didn't watch any goal in the first place. Yeah, maybe Liverpool dominated the match very highly but this didn't change anything for them. They were just desperately trying to get ahead against a one-man absent Arsenal. And Arsenal did a really good job by resisting them till the end as they played like this for more than an hour. I wonder what will happen in Emirates.

There were moments of excitement in the game.

Liverpool could have scored at the end to seal the win but Minamino hit the ball over the bar when it seemed like an empty goal. Arsenal could have scored in the first  half after Xhaka was sent off but Saka could not control the ball when it was crossed in to him.

Hopefully the return leg will be much more interesting.

Arsenal 0-2 Liverpool


Arsenal fielded a strong team but lost to a Liverpool team that had first team choice players missing. Jota scored both Liverpool goals.

I am not sure if Arsenal wanted to win this game to the extent they would have postponed the north London derby against Tottenham but whatever happened it is Liverpool going to Wembley to play Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday 27th February 2022.

Was expecting much more from Arsenal in this match. With Liverpool not having a lot of players in this match due to an African tournament. But i think we will probobly see Liverpool winning this tournament they are for me the main favorites in it.

@JollyGood I personally believe it was all about the positive attitude yesterday, and these Liverpool player’s despite missing several top stars showed their positive attitude on the pitch and easily defeated arsenal. Although Chelsea are not playing great at the moment, but I feel that the final game will be different and they can definitely beat Liverpool if they play well, hence let’s hope that we get to see an entertaining match between these two top sides.

I think you are right. Liverpool played in a positive way but to be fair so did Arsenal before and even after the sending-off. They had chances to win it but did not take them whereas Liverpool ended up taking their very late chances to win.

Chelsea vs Liverpool is the same as Tuchel vs Klopp  ;D

@JollyGood this one will be classic game to watch, because both managers would want to win a cup before this season ends and hence I expect them to field their best team for the finale. Furthermore I feel that Liverpool is a stronger side and my favourite to win this cup, but then again Tuchel and his tactics can’t be ignored so I’m really torn on whom to wager, what about you which team do you think will win?.

Which team do you think will win this game?

I think Chelsea will win in 90 minutes therefore no extra-time and no penalties. The score ending up something like 2-1  ;D

The game is taking place on Sunday 27th February. Whether Chelsea win or lose the final, they could find themselves in an uncomfortable place in the Premier League table because if Manchester United win their home game against Watford tomorrow - they will be just 1 point even though they would have played 2 games more.

Liverpool have started to narrow the gap against Manchester City at the top of the table so can take their mind away that and focus on this game with a view to trying to win the final.

Rooting for my team (Liverpool) to clinch the Carabao cup title as this might be one of the few opportunities we would have to lift a trophy this year (UCL still as tough as ever and  it's a top battle for the PL title against City as well). I'm hoping Klopp fields a strong squad against Chelsea on Sunday. As a matter of fact, winning a trophy now that we're this close to City would most likely boost our team confidence to compete more for PL title. It would be an easy task though since Tuchel has eyes on the Carabao cup from the onset.

In the Carabao Cup final, Thomas Tuchel believes Liverpool have the best chance of beating Chelsea. If you're a coach, you can't make your opponent think you aren't strong enough, so on Sunday they will observe a new spirit on the field. Tuchel is a tactical coach, so the way you speak also needs to be tactical. This might be an attempt to distract the Reds. Regardless of how good Chelsea's defense is, Liverpool will win. This will be a tough game if Liverpool starts with the EPL's top players.

Going by performance in the tournament I think Liverpool stand some chance against Chelsea team. Chelsea beat Tottenham by 1 goal and Liverpool defeated Arsenal by 2: 0 . And in the cause of the both games, Liverpool has been good on the ball usually in their traditional way but I read online that Jurgen Klopp may have some challenges but fingers waiting anyway. The match is starting up by 5:30 African time tomorrow Sunday.

It's a final game and you can't exactly always predict performance regardless of how each team has performed in their previous games before this final. Both teams stand a chance to lift the Carabao cup. Kieta will be starting for Liverpool and he has to impress as Thiago has had an injury while warming up for this game. Chelsea is without Ziyecha but i am sure they can cope. looking to see how the first 45mins will go.

It is currently half-time, the game stands at 0-0. Mount missed a chance to put Chelsea ahead with a volley but he hit the ball wide even though he was just 8 yards outside the goal. Maybe that will be the incident Chelsea will regret.

I wasn't expecting 0-0 even though that was the likeliest outcome at HT on the bookie odds. Hard for me to be objective as a Reds supporter but had we switched our forwards and been given the same chances, I daresay we'd be 2-nil up.

Keita is a little frustrating for me, and I feel like we need to harry them a little bit more. Good news is we do have options and I trust Klopp's tactics more than Tuchel's.

As long as we keep forcing the corners we should be fine. Chalobah seems a slight chink to be exploited, and they seem shaky defending corners.

Game on, I guess.

The word that best describes the miss is SHOCKING!
Chelsea fans may not be happy at Chelsea's missed opportunities. They missed some incredible opportunities that did not come easy to them. The moment you miss yours, the moment your opponent scores, the game is over. However, let the deserving team win.

Tense game here, a lot of goals goals denied, both teams clearly keeping a high defensive line, penalties now, and any team that wins clearly deserves the win, IMHO both teams have played hard and well enough to win this. I didn't expect a goalless draw especially with all the injuries. I'm watching the game at a public place and clearly it is Chelsea against other teams.

Chelsea missed alot of opportunities from the beginning at most five good chances which they are supposed to score, shall from initial i predicted the match to be draw were we are analysing the ball but many people couldn't agree with me, i have seen that Chelsea opportunity became stronger, if not that Chelsea goalkeeper who are smart enough they would have score more than 3 goals.

I protested the introduction of Kepa.
Kepa once or twice has been good in catching pk, but pk is more of a thing of luck. Meanwhile, Mendy during the just concluded AFCON saved Pk and he should have been given some benefits of doubt.
I really knew that Kepa will be disastrous. It is disappointing that Kepa could not catch 1 out of 11 pk taken and to crown it all, he send his own pk to the fans.
Congratulations Liverpool, you deserve the cup.

What are you saying, have you seen kepa's goal saving ratios? Nobody comes close in the premier league and even Mendy knows that. Chelsea has played about 3 penalty shootout this season and kepa has been our go to keeper. Mendy isn't good when it come to penalty, the save against Egypt was just luck. There was nothing Chelsea could do in today game as it was programmed for Liverpool to win.

Did you watch the penalty shootout, you can see kepa diving the right direction but the penalties were just good to be stopped. Kepa was under too much pressure and I don't understand why he let that get into his head. It's just a mistake that he'll shake it off. Already Chelsea has won sliver wears this season so losing this one isn't a big deal although it would had been great winning it.

The match was determined by VAR. Kepa, who was sent on to save a penalty, missed it. What a brilliant and entertaining game of football. A football match would be more beautiful if everything around it were like we saw during Chelsea vs Liverpool. It was almost impossible to separate the two sides. The penalty shootout was quite boring. However, Liverpool won the game and this was an entertaining match.

Come on man, there's no need to cast blames to the keeper, and we can't know better about the players IMO than the coaches and technical staffs that trains them. If the coach had seen kepa to be a good choice, then i think he was right. There were a lot of missed opportunities, there was this particular clear Chelsea chance at goal that came off the bar, the moment o saw that, i knew it was hard luck for Chelsea and Liverpool was going to win. Both teams played their best, but there is always going to be a winner and a loser.

It worked before for Chelsea too against Villareal,,, he saved 2 penalties and won them the shootout in Europe, so I would definitely argue that this was a good strategy. Penalties is all about luck,,, and I guess nobody can predict keepers will be forced to take the penalties and in the end you cannot prepare for every single outcome.

Get on with it Chelsea fans :)

Agreed, I preferred the game compared to the shout out since both keepers did very little to stop the kicks. I expected more from Kelleher and Kepa most especially since he was brought it towards the end of the extra time to step in for the shootout. Funny thing is that, if Kepa wasn't given the opportunity, media would say Tuchel was unfair to him considering he was pivotal for the team when Mendy was representing in Afcon a couple of weeks ago.

Anyway, both Liverpool and Chelsea suffered from unfair VA decisions over the course of the game so people need to stop making it look one-sided.

Happy we won the trophy though incase we don't win the UCL this season or City doesn't drop any more points for us to pickup  ;)

I also think that the last thing in such a match is to blame Kepa, when the players of both teams were able to hit the opponent's goal with full compliance with football rules. I think the head coach of the team had the best information about his goalkeepers and acted accordingly. Let's not forget that Kepa has already won two penalty shootouts in this League Cup draw, and therefore Tuchel's logic is quite understandable when he decided to change the goalkeeper. The only mistake of Kepa is that he could not score a penalty, and this is still not the most important thing that is expected from the goalkeeper. Who wouldn't say that, but the penalty shootout is a kind of football lottery, where the luck factor plays a bigger role than in the goals that are scored during the match.

I am updating the thread to cover the competition for this season. Here are the latest results:

22nd December 2022
Manchester City 3-2 Liverpool

21st December 2022
Blackburn Rovers 1-4 Nottingham Forest
Charlton Athletic 0-0 Brighton and Hove Albion FT Charlton Athletic win 4-3 on penalties.
Manchester United 2-0 Burnley

20th December 2022
Milton Keynes Dons 0-3 Leicester City
Newcastle United 1-0 Bournemouth
Southampton 2-1 Lincoln City
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0 Gillingham

We are looking forward to the quarterfinals draw after an intriguing round of 16 in the Carabao Cup. Possibly delaying the draw till after the next match between Charlton and Brighton. Both of them drew in the elimination round and are anticipated to play in the next leg. These are the tournament's rules.
 Liverpool losing to man city, I believe that Liverpool needs to address its midfield problems. might acquire new players through the January transfer window. This season, they have outperformed expectations.

Manchester City and Liverpool had a great match, scoring five goals together. This time Manchester City won with 3 goals, two of which were scored after great passes by De Bruyne and a couple of times City could score more from the same De Bruyne. Haaland also scored as usual, his scoring sense is just "animal", no chance for the opponent if he is at the edge of the attack.
Liverpool also played well, but from the outside it seemed that they lacked skilled players in attack, and Salah alone was not enough to win. It's good that after so many years Milner is still in the ranks and plays very well, gives out assists and manages to insure the defense.

Before I did not know about the existence of such a tournament (Carabao Cup). I always thought that it was all one Premier League, which has the English Cup.
It turns out there is another quite interesting tournament in England.

The Caraboa cup was formally called the Carling cup. It has always been in existence.

Nunez was mostly responsible for Liverpool's loss. He missed too many golden chances. He can't continue like that if he's to take Liverpool anywhere. If they had a clinical striker up front they might have even won the match. He's good off the ball and knows how to force attack but when it comes to scoring he's not that guy at all.

Liverpool's offense, of course, was very strange in this game.
If it wasn't for Salah, you'd think it wasn't a Champions League and Premier League winner in the recent past, but some pretty average team.

Maybe Klopp didn't want to field the strongest squad, but it still feels like the absence of Mane and some kind of stagnation in the transfer policy. In fact, all of Liverpool's successes were established long ago in 2015-18 when Klopp joined the team and came Mane, Firmino, Salah, Chamberlain, Van Dyke.

yes, I also just listened to this cup because I saw Manchester City's match against Liverpool and Manchester City won that match, I thought it was the English league, it turned out to be another league cup, I enjoyed watching many matches, especially seeing the game of Manchester City and interestingly Manchester city has eliminated defending champion liverpool, waiting for the next game

After the World Cup games, it is quite difficult to return seeing normal games being played but City - Liverpool one was good.
I didn't see the others, as I see all the remaining EPL teams in the Cup passed to the next stage except Brighton which was quite surprising.
In the quarter final, Newcastle - Leicester will be the hardest one, the remaining games aren't that difficult for City, ManU or Wolves normally.

I expected that both team’s will go easy in this fixture, but it seems that both managers wanted to give their player’s some match practice before the league matches begin hence we managed to witness an exciting contest. Furthermore this is not a new tournament, but managers don’t really prioritise it however I feel that both Manchester sides will prioritise it this season because it’ll give them at least one trophy by the time this season end’s.

yes, almost all clubs in the EPL qualify for the next round, I think Manchester City have to beat several other clubs there, although I'm sure Manchester City can overcome Newcastle and Manchester United, at least we can see Manchester City win the EFL cup later

As well as the Premier League, there are the FA Cup and EFL Cup (also known as Carabao Cup) that are played for every season by the top teams. The FA Cup is open to all teams including non-professional and semi-professional teams from outside the four leagues but the Carabao Cup are open to all teams across the top four leagues.

These are the Carabao Cup quarter-finals games taking place this evening:

Manchester United vs Charlton Athletic   
Newcastle United vs Leicester City

I think Manchester United and Newcastle United should win the games especially by having home advantage. Charlton and Leicester seem to be way out of their depth in any hope winning their respective games.

With a decent first half performance from Manchester United the feels like one that would sure end in the favor of the host Manchester United as they will seek to end the game immediately so they can relax to face Manchester City on Saturday at home once again.
Beautiful goal from the Brazilian talent as he strucked that ball in, so far the middle looks poor but Fred has been impressive. Sad to see Dalot leave of the pitch early as he will be a big loss for the game against City. Anyone noticing Harry Maguire, so far he has no mistakes if he has it has to be one all long passes have also been so accurate.

Highly pressured Newcastle from start to ending but Leicester City have bought enough time holding them down to the second half of the game.

RESULTS:

Manchester United 3-0 Charlton Athletic   
Newcastle United 2-0 Leicester City

Charlton played well and kept positive throughout most of the game but eventually the Rashford substitution ended any hope they had of equalising. He two goals after coming on as a sub. Manchester United are through to the semi-finals.

Newcastle United have not won a major trophy for 54 years but they beat Leicester City 2-0 to reach the semi-finals. Could this be their first major trophy in over half a century?

Newcastle will definitely win one trophy this season, I trust this current squad and their determinations. They have been so solid this season.  It's obvious that money has a lot to do in football. Ever since the Arabic money entered Newcastle the team has changed with the kind of quality players they brought in.
Winning, Leicester by 2nill is not a surprised to me,  I really don't want Newcastle to play Manchester united in the semi finals. I'm scared as man UTD fan

I really hope that Newcastle will win this one. They are really playing good and they have a good streak in the Premiership. The problem is that they will probably face Man City in the semi final and that will be a though game for them to win. But if they continue with great games, I guess they can win. They last game they played in Premiership ended in a draw with six goals so I expect a good game in the semi final.

These are the Carabao Cup quarter-final games being played today:

Nottingham Forest vs Wolverhampton Wanderers
Southampton vs Manchester City

Manchester United and Newcastle United won their quarter-final games last night and both are through to the semi-finals. I would expect Manchester City and Nottingham Forest to join them by winning their games tonight.


Newcastle have been knocked out of the FA Cup and are not going to win the Premier League therefore the Carabao Cup is their only realistic opportunity to win a trophy but they have to will have to face Manchester United and probably Manchester City before they can win it therefore I cannot say they will definitely win a trophy this season. Having said that I like your confidence in them  :)

Newcastle United have surpassed their own expectations this season. If they did not win a trophy but ended the season in a Champions League spot they would gladly accept it but they are so close to winning a first major trophy after 54 years therefore they have to go all out to try to win their semi-final game and make it to the final.

@JollyGood what a run Rashford is having, and I’m surprised at this because there was a rumour at the start of the season that he would be sold and now the club better offer him some good wages and extend his contract before some big club distracts him with a better offer.

Lastly Newcastle definitely deserves a trophy for the way they have been playing, but as a Manchester United fan I can’t wish against my club hence if they both reach the finals then it’ll be really difficult for me to just cheer for my beloved club as part of me will always know that even Newcastle deserves to win this trophy.

Rashford scoring twice in their 3-0 win over Charlton after coming on as a substitute was more proof he is enjoying playing again. He suffered a serious dip in form over the last season but he is looking like a world class player again. He will be offered a new contract but it seems the club is reluctant to break £250,000 per week barrier for any player.

As for Newcastle, they have to win their semi-final before they get to the final and there is no guarantee they can do it. They might have to wait longer before winning their first major trophy since 1955.

Rashford is having his best season under MU new coach. He has been a normal name on Manchester United list of scorers in almost every game he has played this season. I am personally very impressed with his form and excited because he is going to play against Manchester City in this form, and the chances of him scoring plus Manchester United winning high as well.

I don't think the form that Newcastle are on is a one time thing, even if they can't get a cup this season. they will be better next season most likely and the chances of winning a trophy still there.

It's the confidence given to him from the management and coach is all that keeps him going knowing very well that he has the backing of the manager. The coach has told him to be in the right position at all times that he'll find himself scoring as much as he can. The form looks like he'll do same again against Manchester City. I still won't be surprised if he does. The Injury of Dalot isn't too serious, he came off so as to avoid further damages the coach considers him a potential for the upcoming Europa league game against Barcelona.
Newcastle improvement will continue game after game I love the  gradual steps they take last night, they made football looked wonderful.

I will be posting the scores from the Carabao Cup quarter-final games taking place this evening but I wanted to bring this to the attention of those reading this thread that there is a free lottery.

It is free to enter and there is a guaranteed $50 prize for the winner. All you have to do is to correctly select the winner between Fury and Usyk (along with the round the fight will end and how the winner will win) when they fight for the undisputed heavyweight championship. There 58 different slots therefore there is 1 in 58 chance of winning.

If you are interested to be allocated a free slot you can visit the thread here:  JollyGood Free Lottery #1: FURY vs USYK (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5433541.0)

FREE LOTTERY SLOTS ALLOCATED: 14
FREE LOTTERY SLOTS AVAILABLE:  44

RESULTS from the Carabao Cup quarter-final games played this evening:

Nottingham Forest 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Nottingham Forest win 4-3 on penalties

Southampton 2-0 Manchester City

Shock of the day, Southampton have beaten Manchester City and are through to the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup alongside Manchester United, Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest. Here is the semi-final draw:

Southampton vs Newcastle
Nottingham Forest vs Manchester United

Well this is a nice surprise that Southampton beat Man City in the quarter final. This definitely gives more chances to Newcastle to advance to the final but I guess they should be careful playing against Southampton. If they manage to beat Man City with two goals, they will probably be a tough nut to crack in the semi final.

It was a surprise to see Southampton beat Manchester City but Guardiola put out a fairly strong team to start with which should have won the game. As a back up he introduced Haaland and De Bruyne as second half substitutes but they could not turn the game around. Congratulations to Southampton, they will make it very difficult for Newcastle.

On paper this should clearly be Manchester United vs Newcastle United in the final.

I agree. Man United is definitely a better team than Nottingham Forest but you never know. Maybe Nottingham manages to win just like Southampton won against Man City. I guess we have to wait and see how the semi final games will end, but I definitely expect Newcastle to face Man United in the final game.

Of course, this result is very surprising because City, who are perched at the top of the English Premier League, are clearly more favored. Moreover, Southampton is currently struggling in the league standings. City manager Pep Guardiola believes his team deserved to lose. Pep Guardiola admitted that Man City was not at his best level. In fact, the manager did not deny that his concoction team did not deserve to win. City are not ready to serve Southampton

I won't lie this is a complete bad performance from Manchester City ahead of the derby game against Manchester United what message are they passing to Manchester United, that they are not in a good form Southampton wasn't creative enough but I wonder how they did convert those two goals against City last night. Pep Guardiola also said City won't get a good performance if they are to repeat same against Manchester United. As expected, if Southampton doesn't buckle up they are going to be relegated.

It was a good performance tonight from both teams; With Newcastle having Joelington goal ruled out, missed a sitter and eventually scoring the winner for the magpies as Newcastle get a 1 nil victory away from home in the first leg of the carabao cup semifinal clash. Southampton meanwhile also had a goal chalked out for handball by VAR, and also put in a great fight despite playing the later stages with a man down. A big second leg awaits as the tie is very open for both teams

Southampton 0-1 Newcastle United

RESULT:

Southampton 0-1 Newcastle United

The semi-final is played over two legs. The first game ended with Newcastle getting a victory away at Southampton. Newcastle are edging towards their first cup final in many years if they manage to avoid a loss when the two teams meet again in 7 days.

In the second semi-final tomorrow, Nottingham Forest host Manchester United in the first leg of their semi-final.

I'm very happy for the supporters of Newcastle United because they have waited and gone too long without any trophies to celebrate but now it's looking like that is going to change if they can get to the finals. Leading to Joelington's goal, Isak did really well to skip past the Southampton defenders.  From now on I think he deserves to always start games for Newcastle.

Newcastle United have the advantage going into the second leg and they can surely win to meet the winners between Manchester United and Nottingham forest.  If Newcastle get to the Finals, they have a very good chance of winning it, Newcastle defence has been excellent this season.

@JollyGood Newcastle supporters are probably dreaming about winning the trophy, and to be honest they deserve at least one trophy for the way they have played this season. However they won by a very slim margin, and I hope that their player’s do not get carried away and don’t end up underestimating Southampton in the return leg otherwise they could end up missing playing in the final’s

Nottingham Forest vs Man Utd tonight.

Obviously Man Utd go in as huge favourites but Forest will fight hard because they might not get a better chance to get to a final. I’ll be rooting for Forest, would be great to see them get to Wembley but I just don’t think it’ll happen unfortunately.

https://i.ibb.co/26v5PW4/Screenshot-20230125-164347.jpg (https://ibb.co/26v5PW4)

Just not to be Manchester United biased despite the fact that I want em to qualify and wrap things up quickly tonight, I don't see a possible Manchester United winning tonight all I see is a complete draw.
One thing for sure is that, there'll be fresh legs for this game and I'm sure Captain Harry Maguire will be down to cause error tonight ( Not serious bout this ).

After the game against Arsenal, I'm sure of Erik Ten Hag squad rotation today, which might see a dull game, I expect Nothingham Forest to harm The Red devil's tonight first.

A draw tonight and Manchester United send Nothingham Forest home when they return to Old Trafford, Dean Henderson will not be allowed to face his boy hood club since he's still currently on loan. I'll love to see him return back next season.

The second semi-final being played is tonight:

Nottingham Forest vs Manchester United


There still is a chance Southampton could turn this around and go to the final at Wembley themselves but it will be tough.

Newcastle have been dreaming of becoming a big club for a very long time, well they are a big club with a big local support base but they need to win trophies to be taken seriously. Maybe they will start from this cup and go on a winning run. I still think Southampton will make it difficult and could even make it to the final themselves.

I would not be surprised if Nottingham Forest won tonight but lost heavily in the return leg at Old Trafford. For the neutrals, I am sure they would prefer a Southampton vs Nottingham Forest final.

Nottingham totally have no chance of making it to the finals with the very good advantage and three goal lead that Manchester United have. The people that their getting to the finals is still in doubts is Newcastle because Southampton can turn things around in the second leg. If it turns out to be a final between Newcastle and Manchester United, it will l not be an easy title for Manchester United to just win, They will have to face and play a much more  better and composed game to pass Newcastle defense and to defend against them scoring.

It'll be the first time after a long time should I say twenty four good year's since Newcastle united played and won in a final, so I see that they have got to do all it takes to beat Southampton next week.
Manchester United also have been without luck when it comes to Semi finals like this one but the results last night showed they've actually stepped up on that.

Manchester United did impressively great, big defending from the defender's to keep a cleaner last night. It'll take two more clean sheets to finally equal former Manchester United goalkeepers record with a total of 180 for Manchester United during his entire stay.

RESULT:

Nottingham Forest 0-3 Manchester United

This result was from the game played yesterday. I think it is fair enough to say Manchester United will make it to the final no matter what happens when they host Nottingham Forest in the second leg of their semi-final. I cannot see how they could squander a three away goals lead when a place in a final is at stake. The question still remains as to who they will meet: Newcastle United or Southampton

Southampton kicked City with 2 goals and lost with 1 goal vs Newcastle. In the second leg, Newcastle will play home and I doubt Southampton could pass them like what happened with City.
Now ManU in the second leg will play comfortably at home and I think they will win without much efforts.
The final game will be between ManU and Newcastle and I believe ManU will get that title.

https://i.postimg.cc/Y0zFVZC1/MU.png (https://postimages.org/)

The 2nd leg semifinal between MU and Forest seems like is not interesting to watch. Because we all know MU definitely steps to the next Final. but we rule out the injured player, I am not sure Fred will suitable to fill up Ericson's position. but on the other side, Nottingham Forest is also have the same problem, Morgan Gibbs-White is have injured on 1st leg that possible he can't not play tomorrow, So with this situation, the odds is very convincing to MU because the material player is better than opponent.

It will take a lot of Tactical brilliance for Manchester United to win Newcastle in the finals. Newcastle is a very difficult team to score against because of their very good defense and their attack is very good too and getting better. In the premier league when both teams played against each other, it ended in a draw. This will be a finals, and the morale of the players will be different. For Manchester United, ETH will want to win his first trophy as coach, For Newcastle, they will want to break the long run of no trophy to celebrate that the club has had. The winner of the finals will be the team that wants it more, and both team have good motivation.

@blue Snow I totally agree that it’ll be a boring match as I expect Manchester United to play with their reserve player’s, and further I strongly feel that it may also turn out to be a low scoring game. Lastly with Eriksen out Manchester United midfield looks kinda empty, but Fred is a good option and I’m also curious to see what  Sabitzer (https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11890/12799993/marcel-sabitzer-manchester-united-sign-bayern-munich-midfielder-on-loan-in-late-deadline-day-move) will bring to Manchester United’s midfield since he’s a last minute addition to this Manchester United squad.

Newcastle United won 2-1 against Southampton yesterday (3-1 on aggregate) to make their first final at Wembley in 24 years. They lost the 1999 FA Cup final to Manchester United in the season Ferguson managed the treble winning team.

Tonight, Manchester United host Nottingham Forest in the second leg of their semi-final and they have a 3-0 lead therefore the chances are it will be Manchester United vs Newcastle United in the final.

In accordance with what we predicted before, MU won easily tonight after changing formation in 2nd half. Martial and Rashford did the situation and make it more effective on the front. I had doubts after 0-0 in 1st half and had time to think to withdraw the bet into the draw. but when I see there is a substitution, i undo it.

https://i.postimg.cc/bJ1QRbpG/win.png (https://postimages.org/)

https://www.streamingrant.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/skysports-carabao-cup-final_6065239-750x422-1.jpg

The final is today, the game will kick-off at 4.30pm and Manchester United will play against Newcastle United.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fp5xuWmakAcHVoJ?format=jpg&name=small

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fp5xG_NXgAQoUoC?format=jpg&name=small

Most would make Manchester United favourites to win the game but anything can happen in a final. Newcastle will make it difficult but like most I expect Manchester United to win.

Manchester United did not fail and disappoint people that expected them to win, they won the game clearly. Before the game I saw a video of a man who said he has been following Newcastle for about 60years and this was the first time they were in a finals, he was happy that he finally watched his club Newcastle play in a finals and that was all that mattered to him regardless of the result. I think that that is the same opinion that most Newcastle supporters had. They always knew that winning this game was a long shot, and though they prefer the win, the have their minds prepared for any other outcome. The have a silverware to celebrate after long years of wait, It gives hope to their supporters that Newcastle will be better in the coming seasons.

RESULT:

Manchester United 2-0 Newcastle United

Manchester United won the game with two first half goals. What a turnaround from the team that lost to both Brighton and Brentford as the beginning of the season. They are still in the FA Cup and Europa League as well as chasing for the Premier League.

As for Newcastle, there are many positives to take because the ideas of the new manager will take time to implement and they are clearly in need of strengthening their squad. If they manage to finish the season in the top four it will be a massive achievement.

Congratulations to Macnhester United and the 2022/2023 English League Cup became Ten Hag's first trophy with Manchester United after winning 2-0 vs Newcastle. And if you look at all the results of Manchester United's matches in the middle of this season, they always produce good results, and I think they deserve it.

and now Macnhester is still fighting and fighting, in the FA Cup, Europa League, and also still fighting for the Premier League title.
And I hope that Manchester United don't just win the English League Cup, and should be able to achieve more than this.

Congratulations to ManU for winning EFL Cup and good luck for them to win other competitions. They can do it and win Europa League especially after kicking one of the best teams: Barcelona out. In FA Cup, there isn't many top teams left except City and Spurs.
I am impressed with their performance after their horrible start this season in EPL and they deserve to lift something. For Newcastle, they did pretty well and this team might have a bright future.

@JollyGood I vividly remember that time as Ten Hag was written off by all, but he said he doesn’t care and he’ll work tirelessly for the club and in the end results are showing that he was the right man for the job. Furthermore Newcastle have improved a lot this season, and for me even if they finish in top 6 it’s a massive statement of intent from them because they’ll be considered as genuine title contenders next season.

I think Manchester United were labelled as a failing team in the first couple of games in to their season but the vital win against Liverpool set them back on the road to recovery. Ten Hag made a huge decision to bench Maguire and that somehow kick-started their season with Martinez and Varane occupying the central defensive positions.

They won the Carabao Cup and are still in the semi-final of the FA Cup, the quarter-final of the Europa League and are joint 3rd in the Premier League therefore they have made progress.

Any body who understands football will know that Ten Hag was a good coach. The way Manchester United played even at the beginning of the season when they were losing shows that Ten Hag knew what he was doing, but I must confess I thought he would need more time to get things right. I felt this way because watching the Manchester United players play you'd see they struggled to execute things on the pitch exactly how Ten Hag wanted. His concepts were alien to them.
Take for example, Ten Hag is a manager that loves his team to always be on the ball by releasing it very quickly to their teammates. United players struggled with this because they were not used to that style of play, but look how quickly they all adapted.

There is still a lot of room for development in that team and a lot of positions that needs to be filled by the right players, but from what Ten Hag has done so far, we can say that he might be the coach to return Manchester United to her glory days.

Throughout the season Manchester United have not been good enough to finish in the top two places in the Premier League because Arsenal and Manchester City deserve to be fighting for the top two positions but Newcastle United, Manchester United and Tottenham do deserve to be fighting for a top 4 finish and with that champions league qualification.

Ten Hag has done well by winning the Carabao Cup but they have to focus on the Europa League and FA Cup. If they win three trophies in his first season and finish 3rd in the Premier League that will be a success considering their fall from grace after Ferguson retired.

SEASON 2023/24

It is now the 4th Round. The next games to take place are on Tuesday 31st October 2023 are:

Bournemouth vs Liverpool
Chelsea vs Blackburn Rovers
Everton vs Burnley
Exeter City vs Middlesbrough
Ipswich Town vs Fulham
Manchester United vs Newcastle United
Mansfield Town vs Port Vale
West Ham United vs Arsenal

Which team do you think will win the tournament? Manchester United are the current champions but Liverpool, Chelsea, West Ham and Arsenal are still in the competition.

have to pick my own Everton to win it
after seven matches drawn as away in Carabao cup, Everton has a good chance to progress further against Burnley at home
two wins in away matches in a row, against Premier league rivals (not in Premier league, dough) after several years, and it seems that Everton found some form, with DCL back on the pitch

Everton manager Dyche will face his old team Burnley in the next round. To be honest he deserves credit because he did a very good job while he was managing there for on a shoestring budget. I think Everton should win that game, the home advantage will be urging them on.

Mansfield Town vs Port Vale is the one to watch because of the spirit of the game. The winning team will go on to make a lot of money from television rights and the smaller clubs deserve more financial help.

Let's see if Newscastle and West ham can do well to eliminate both Manchester United and Arsenal. I have no problem if Newcastle eliminates another Manchester team (bonus for Liverpool). Given the current teams still left, I won't say it would be anneasy one for Liverpool. Any of these teams (including Chelsea) can still pull an upset against Liverpool.

For the records, Chelsea is the only thing that have drawn Liverpool this season and yet, their performances have been exponentially terrible than any of the "big 4" or "big 6" teams.

Bournemouth vs Liverpool
Chelsea vs Blackburn Rovers
Everton vs Burnley
Exeter City vs Middlesbrough
Ipswich Town vs Fulham
Manchester United vs Newcastle United
Mansfield Town vs Port Vale
West Ham United vs Arsenal

I think there will be some cup upsets along the way. What are the odds Bournemouth will beat Liverpool, Blackburn Rovers will defeat Chelsea and West Ham United will defeat Arsenal? What about the Manchester United vs Newcastle United game, that will be another good game to watch as it is featuring the finalists of the 2023 Carabao Cup. I expect Manchester United to win that game and I expect West Ham United to beat Arsenal too.

Arsenal managed to get a victory from Brentford, well that was expected but when I see Manchester City leaving soon when facing Newcastle United that was quite surprising, especially that Newcastle isn't that solid as last season.
Everton kicking Aston Villa was the other unexpected result.

Liverpool
Chelsea
Everton
Fulham
Manchester United - Newcastle, I will go with Newcastle for obvious reasons
West Ham - Arsenal, I will go with gunners
The other 2 matches are random for me.

Bournemouth to beat Liverpool? Nah, I doubt that Bournemouth have what it takes to beat the current Liverpool team given the number of quality (both attack, midfield and defence) that Klopp has at his disposal to deploy. Even Liverpool's B team is looking strong. But I can't say the same for Chelsea or Man Utd. Arsenal might hold their own against West ham but I expect West ham to give them a run for their money (the EFL is like West ham's one of their very few title prospects so they'd want to take it seriously).

TLDR: Liverpool upset vs Bournemouth? Not likely but this is football. Chelsea likely, man utd likely, Arsenal very likely.

It is a knockout competition, a cup competition therefore anything can happen. I hardly ever get surprised nowadays when a smaller team knocks out a bigger team because the so-called magic of the cup is not limited to the FA Cup. Sure, on paper it seems as though Bournemouth have no chance but I would not write them off.

I also expect West Ham to go at Arsenal without fear because they really have developed in a good team. Moyes has allowed that mentality to become to big they won the Europa Conference League 2023 therefore are a team going place. I do not think Rice was worth £105 million but Arsenal paid it. West Ham enough money in hand now to buy suitable players that can take them towards a top 7/8 finish in the Premier League as well as a possible domestic cup final.

Two games were played yesterday where Port Vale and Middlesbrough qualified. Lucky EPL opponent that they will face in the next phase.
Today's matches are more interesting especially West Ham - Arsenal and Manchester United - Newcastle. I find Arsenal favourite since they didn't lose any of their games from quite long period. In the other match, both Newcastle and Manchester United aren't well but ManU is performing bad lately. I am not fully confident to support Newcastle, it is just that ManU is playing randomly that make me feel they are the underdog here.
For the remaining matches, Liverpool, Chelsea, Fulham should pass and for the Burnley and Everton, I think Everton might get lucky here.

Arsenal surprisingly are fielding a strong squad for tonight's fixture, what is more surprising is that majority of the players did not feature in the EPL weekend match, showing that they are building some strong squad depth with their recent acquisitions. Arteta will need to manage the squad well to keep the players happy and also introduce the new players into the team at a decent time.

Liverpool made more rotations cause they are playing a weaker team and have a better chance to win.

I predict the expected teams to win tonight, including Chelsea and Newcastle.

- Jay -

@un_rank despite the changes Arsenal lost and your predictions about Chelsea and Newcastle came true as both the teams manage to win their respective game’s. Furthermore now Ten Hag is only few games away from being sacked because every match shows zero progress, zero idea’s and his egoistic desire to stick with his favourites and thus he won’t be able to hold on to his position for long now.

It was a beautiful victory to West Ham to scored three goals to defeated Arsenal, and to make many people lose their prediction from the match because they thought Arsenal can use the same power they use to achieve victory from premier league competition in this EFL league. West Ham really prove to their fans how strong they are in this season by achieving three goals for the strong team which is an evidence that they have improve through the help of their manager who is trying to give his best to the team in this season. Chelsea did a great job to defeated their opponent 2-0 for the favour of Chelsea, because they took a good lead in the first half 1-0 that gave them the opportunity to achieved the second goal in the second half to embraced the victory from Blackburn rovers.

These were the results from the games played yesterday:

West Ham United 3-1 Arsenal  
Bournemouth 1-2 Liverpool  
Chelsea 2-0 Blackburn Rovers  
Everton 3 0 Burnley  
Ipswich Town 1-3 Fulham  
Manchester United 0-3 Newcastle United
 
Chelsea won the game but their form is inconstant, maybe Pochettino will get the balance right in the coming games and they will go on a winning run. Congratulations to West Ham United after the beat Arsenal 3-1 in a game that was set up for Arsenal to win with a very strong squad.

Also, Newcastle United have been playing excellent football, they dominated the game when the beat defending Carabao Cup champions Manchester United.

Isn’t it time for Ten Hag to face the reality that Manchester United overachieved last season by finishing 4th place in the Premier League and by winning the Carabao Cup? He has lost the trust of the players and his tactics are simply not good enough.

 

The Quarter-final games will start soon with three matches that will be played today and one tomorrow.
First match is between Everton and Fulham in Goodison Park which is the advantage that Everton have. Additionally they have a good record in their latest games at the opposite of the beginning, yet I find Fulham a little bit better at the opposite of bookies where Everton are favourite in this match with 1.8 vs 3.8 for Fulham.
In the second match we have two random teams and it appears that Middlesbrough will win this game. Then there is the best match where Newcastle will face Chelsea in Stamford Bridge. I know that both teams are lagging in English Premier League but the odds difference is quite big with Chelsea @1.7 and Newcastle @4.3. Even though Chelsea is the host, Newcastle aren't that weak!
The last game will be played tomorrow with Liverpool favourite at home against West Ham United thought.

Onana penalty was a greatest miss that I saw recently
he had a chance to secure passing through for Everton and his shot was more a pass to keeper than a shot

Fulham was up in first half, although Everton was a bit better, but late goal by Beto equalized score, and game ended as draw, so penalties were taken
one miss for Fulham, and Onana had all in his foot, but didn't use it, and Everton falled out after 8 penalty series

Chelsea passed against Newcastle on penalties, and will meet Middlesbrough
Liverpool is playing tonight with West Ham

There is one game taking place this evening Wednesday 20th December

Liverpool vs West Ham United

The way West Ham United have been playing there is more than a slim chance that they could manage an upset at Anfield but the way Liverpool are playing it seems difficult. For West Ham to win, they would have to be playing at their best while Liverpool would have to make a series of disastrous errors. It could in a hard fought 2-1 home win.

Liverpool 1 - 0 West Ham United in the first half.
West Ham United didn't impress at all in this first half, basically no control of the ball, no serious attempts to not say no attempts at all. They are already one goal down against Liverpool which was dominating in this first half.
Liverpool are better, winning most of the time against West Ham United and today it seems that the result will not be different. I don't know if West Ham United will play seriously in the second half but their best chance might be to pick a goal to get the draw and drive Liverpool to play with them penalties, then everyone will try their luck.

https://i.ibb.co/mCp6sNy/efl-cup-semi-finals.png (https://ibb.co/BVkqDn6)

The semi finals draw is just as in the image above.

I already see a Liverpool v Chelsea finale in the EFL Cup to tell the truth. Liverpool won this cup in the 2021/2022 season however the last time for Chelsea was in the 2014/2015 season. It would be more valuable for Chelsea if they put an end to this break. Apart from that Chelsea would really make use of a title in a difficult season like this. But I don't know if they can beat Liverpool. I wouldn't expect Klopp to rotate the lineup for a finale like that in the end.  :)

If that was the plan it failed because West Ham could not get a goal as they were beaten by 1-0 by Liverpool therefore these are the semi-final fixtures:

Tuesday 9th January: Middlesbrough vs Chelsea
Wednesday 10th January: Liverpool vs Fulham

On paper, you would presume Chelsea and Liverpool will play the final but Middlesbrough and Fulham are not there to make up numbers, they also believe they can get to the final. Well done to all four teams for getting this far.

If Chelsea won a trophy in the first season Pochettino became manager, it will give them a massive boost for next season. Liverpool are playing excellent this season therefore if these two teams made it to the final it will be a good game to watch.

The first leg of EFL Cup semifinal games will start tomorrow with Chelsea facing away Middlesbrough and a day after Liverpool will host Fulham.
I think most people will go with Chelsea and Liverpool victory for sure.
Middlesbrough didn't win any of their games against Chelsea and Liverpool last defeat against Fulham was almost three years ago.

I believe the final game will be played between Chelsea and Liverpool but honestly it will be a surprise to see Chelsea winning unless Liverpool suffered from many injuries and red cards!
Chelsea barely standing still in English Premier League

I did not post an update with the semi-final result from yesterday or a reminder for the game being played today. Chelsea had a difficult match travelling away for the first leg of a semi-final fixture but they should have won, they had many chances to score yet Middlesbrough managed a 1-0 win:

Tuesday 9th January: Middlesbrough 1-0 Chelsea
Wednesday 10th January: Liverpool vs Fulham

I will update the thread after game ends today. Fulham are currently winning the game 0-1 after Willian gave them the lead with a 19th minute goal.

These are the semi-final games second leg fixtures:

Tuesday 23rd January
Chelsea vs Middlesbrough
Agg: 0-1

Wednesday 24th January
Fulham vs Liverpool
Agg: 1-2

Even though Middlesbrough managed that memorable win in the first leg, I think most would expect Chelsea to win the game on the night by a couple of goals and go through to the final.

As for Liverpool, they came back from a goal down to win at Anfield but I am expecting Fulham to cause an upset here and win the game. If they win 1-0 the away goals will not count therefore extra-time will be played and Liverpool should have enough energy in their players to get them to the final.

RESULT:

Chelsea 6-1 Middlesbrough

The first semi-final second leg was played yesterday and Chelsea ended it with an emphatic 6-1 victory at Stamford Bridge. Middlesbrough were losing 6-0 but managed to get a consolation goal before the final whistle. Overall, Chelsea make it to the final with a 6-2 aggregate win.

The second semi-final second leg takes place this evening between Fulham and Liverpool (which is 1-2 after the first leg).

Middlesbrough was leading in aggregate just for 15 minutes then by the end of the first half the goals difference went up to 3 goals then no surprise by the end of the game Middlesbrough got a heavy damage. No serious attack, barely reaching the goalie. Now Chelsea has to face Liverpool which passed thanks to aggregate after their draw against Fulham 1 - 1.
I think Liverpool is better than Chelsea regardless of the results of these two matches. The final game will be held in Wembley after a month from now.

The game will kick-off at 3pm on Sunday 25th February 2024. Klopp will leave his role as Liverpool manager at the end of the season and Liverpool are still playing for trophies (Premier League, Carabao Cup and FA Cup as well as Europa League) and winning some or all would be a brilliant way for Liverpool to say goodbye to Klopp.

On the other hand, Chelsea have not found consistency under their manager Pochettino but the job was intense and it was always going to take time to find a balance. Pochettino has never won a trophy as manager in the Premier League and is desperate to get his first. This is their only possible trophy this season therefore the players will go out and try to win it.

=====

Anybody else agree with me? The game will without extra-time or penalties. It will end on 90 minutes: Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool

I don't support any of the teams above but I think Liverpool will win at least 2 - 1 against Chelsea.
The odds are in favour of Liverpool but I wasn't based on that. In fact, I find Liverpool performance better, Klopp is superior as a manager than Pochettino and it is his last year with Liverpool so I think he will try to have a last achievement since English Premier League title isn't obvious when you have Manchester City at your back.
I know how important this game for Chelsea too but still think Liverpool will win in the main time.

This Chelsea vs Liverpool game is really going to be a fascinating encounter because this is the game that defines Chelsea season, so they will actually give their all just lift this trophy, moreover their performance against the bigger teams has really been good compared to their outing against the smaller teams.

Though Liverpool are the bookmarks favourite for this one due to their current form and their standing at the top of the premier league chart, but they actually need to be at the top of their game if they must come out of this game victorious.

The big team duel is again presented now in the final round of the Carabao Cup, today Liverpool and Chelsea will try their best to be able to present their first title of the season to their fans, if we look at the performance of the two teams in the league of course Liverpool is much better than Chelsea but  We must remember of course the rise of Chelsea in the last few matches of course it is something that Liverpool must be wary of , I don't think it will be easy for both teams to win the match because after all a final will increase the morale and motivation of the players to play better, in my opinion this final match will end in a penalty and it looks like Chelsea will be able to get the carabao trophy this season.

Both teams are desperate to win the game. Chelsea need their first trophy under their new manager Pochettino and under their new owner. Liverpool want to win to give their manager Klopp a wonderful goodbye before he leaves his job at the end of this season. I had it wrong, they are in to extra-time with less than five minutes left before it goes on to penalties.

Congratulations to Liverpool, it was a good achievement, they can still achieve more things like the Fa Cup, the European League and the Premier League, but the fact that at least Liverpool won this tournament is already something very motivating. Talking about today's game, in my opinion it was a game without much quality of play, at least in terms of both teams attacking a lot and scoring a lot of goals, I know that in finals games it's difficult to see many goals, but in this game Both teams had problems in attack, in Liverpool's case it was understandable, because Liverpool has many good players injured and if they had been playing today, the game would have gone in a different direction, something like Liverpool's victory within the 90 minutes.

Luis Dias had a great opportunity that could have scored a goal, but he had no creativity when he shot, on the other side Chelsea also wasted opportunities, but in Chelsea's case it is serious because that is their best squad, a weak squad, With this squad, Chelsea will not be able to win the premier league, this season this tournament is one of the few things that Chelsea could win, now they only have the fa cup and if they are eliminated, then this season they will have nothing left. They won't even get a place in the Champions League next season. The strangest thing is that even with the opening of the market last month I didn't see any major signings made by them, perhaps you are satisfied with the current situation they are in

I have to give congratulations to Liverpool too. Klopp knew he had a good chance to try to unsettle Chelsea and win the game even though he fielded a team of inexperienced young players along a few senior regular players. The way Van Dijk connected with the ball to guide his header to the goal was perfect and the goalkeeper had very little chance of saving it.

I hope Liverpool use the win as a catalyst to try to win as much as they can this season because it will be a great way for Liverpool and Klopp to part ways.

As for Chelsea, I hope they get past the disappointment of the loss today and start doing what they can to start climbing up the Premier League table with the intention to start next season with a fresh mindset. I am sure Pochettino is the right man for the manager role at Chelsea and hopefully next season he will improve their team.

Congratulations to Liverpool!
I expected them to win but not in the extra time, for sure not in the last two minutes before penalties and Chelsea disappointed me for not scoring any goal.
Unfortunately I couldn't follow the whole game and Klopp should be happy for this achievement before leaving Liverpool.
For Chelsea, that defeat could serve as an alert to wake them up from their low level right now..

At one stage Liverpool were missing 10 first team players therefore they had to play the game with a reserve team full of kids therefore surprised most people watching the game by winning it.

Having said that Chelsea statistically were also a very young team but for some inexplicable reason they failed to do push for a winner, instead doing very little when extra-time began and that was when Liverpool were playing most of the attacking football. The game would have gone to penalties if Van Dijk had not scored 4 minutes from the end of the game.

Klopp celebrated that win with a lot of comfort and satisfaction, he personifies Liverpool therefore they will suffer without him when he will not be there next season. I think it is obvious Salah will also start the next season playing his football in the  Saudi Pro League therefore Liverpool will have to cope without their two main stars.

But what makes this victory feel even more exciting for Liverpool is that they achieved it in less than ideal conditions.
Liverpool came in having lost many players due to injury, namely Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Curtis Jones, Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota.
With minimal options, Liverpool must rely on young players. Harvey Elliott and Conor Bradley, both just 20, started.
With this victory we can see where Chelsea's level is, with young players who have fantastic prices.
It turns out that this is not a guarantee of being able to beat Liverpool and become champions of the Carabao Cup. Liverpool really deserves to get this trophy.

Once again congratulations to Liverpool! Hopefully this trend will continue in the EPL until the end of the season.

Liverpool had 99% of their first choice starting eleven unavailable because of injuries therefore to beat a Chelsea team that had near full first choice starting eleven was commendable. Klopp will leave Liverpool in good shape because the players coming through the youth ranks of today will be part of their first team tomorrow.

I hope Chelsea owners and fan have patience with Pochettino, he will make them challenge for the title again but he needs time.

In terms of the game of the two teams, it is very impressive, it can be seen from both teams with their own way of playing, even though in the end Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool in the final score of the achievements of the two teams by fighting for the first trophy this season by looking at the team's current performance. Chelsea is still up and down. in the English League Cup, but Liverpool also have to be wary of Chelsea, who troubled them during the match in the English League Cup. Chelsea won four matches from their seven meetings.

I am unsure if there is any AI involved or whether it is plain stupidity on his part but he is posting today (on 21st May 2024) regarding the outcome of the Carabao Cup final and commenting on how Liverpool have to be wary of Chelsea BUT the game was played 3 months ago on 25th February 2024 and we all knew the result.

If there is an example of either an alt-account or most probably a farmed account that is hoping to rank up, this "Albarq" has to be a serious contender.

@JollyGood, I wonder to know his age and what's on his mind, precisely the relation of a post about Bayer Leverkusen and Bochum in 2.Bundesliga topic, yes 2 and not 1.
Not a typical farmer nor a huge spammer. I think it would be better to lock the topic temporarily or simply to quote his post, which was already done, and to remove his post..