On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Capital One Cup will be back in full swing once again, and the last four teams standing will be fighting it out for the right to go the final on February 28 at Wembley Stadium.
England's version of the Final Four of its secondary cup will pit Liverpool against Stoke City, while Manchester City will duke it out with Everton.
Capital One Cup Odds at BookMaker.eu
Liverpool +115
Manchester City +180
Everton +400
Stoke City +1400
The first thing that must be understood about the Capital One Cup is that the semifinals are broken down into two legs. The first of those legs was played a couple weeks ago, and the teams know what they need to accomplish this week to reach Wembley Stadium.
The teams which will make it to the final will be the ones which have the best composite score from the two games. If the two teams finish with the same number of goals, the team which scored more goals on the road will advance. If the two legs feature identical scores, the two teams will play 30 minutes of extra time followed by a penalty shootout if the overtime period doesn't decide a winner.
The reason Liverpool is the favorite to win the Capital One Cup is because it was able to go on the road to kick off the new year and beat Stoke City 1-0. Now, the Potters have to go on the road to Anfield and beat Liverpool, a task which is incredibly difficult for anyone, particularly in a tournament situation.
Manchester City was beaten by Everton 2-1 in the opening leg, but the Citizens are still the favorites to move on to the final, knowing that they're coming back home and have an away goal in their ledger. A 1-0 victory would be good enough to send Manchester City to Wembley Stadium for the finale, where it would be favored against either Liverpool or Stoke City.
The big question that we have for Everton is whether Romelu Lukaku will still be a member of the team by the time this one kicks off in the middle of the week. Lukaku has scored 15 goals in 22 Premier League matches this year, and he had the winning strike in the opening match against City in the first meeting.
Both teams used relatively strong lineups in the first go around, and we suspect that we'll see much of the same in this one. Both teams did use reserve goalkeepers though, and Joel Robles will likely represent Everton once again versus Wilfredo Caballero, which could be a slight advantage for the Toffees.
Still, Everton didn't really push forward with two strikers until the dying moments in the game, and on a day where it very likely will need at least one goal, this will be an interesting development. The Toffees are trending towards being sellers in the transfer window this year, and that could be a big edge for a very strong Manchester City team.
The big question we have about the other semifinal is whether Stoke City is going to really go full bore in this one or more or less concede that this is where the dream ends. The good news for the Potters is that Liverpool just had to play a wild 90 minutes against Norwich City in a 5-4 match at Carrow Road, so there could be some fatigue from a wild match.
Stoke City hasn't been in great form either, and it hasn't really had a tough road to reach this point either. The Potters haven't been on the road in this tournament since the third round at Fulham, and this could end up being a rude awakening against a Liverpool team which doesn't have a heck of a lot else to play for the rest of the year short of winning this tournament. We suspect motivation won't be a factor for the Reds.
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