First leg at Wembley today, 3pm Eastern. Chelsea will have fresh memories of their rather gutless display in the league game a few months ago and will want to make amends. Tottenham will be without Lucas Moura for Tuesday's Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Chelsea. Moura picked up a knee injury in the FA Cup win at Tranmere, while Eric Dier and Victor Wanyama are also out. Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri is expected to name a strong line-up as Pedro, Olivier Giroud and Willian are all set to return from injury. Midfielder Mateo Kovacic should recover from illness but Ruben Loftus-Cheek is ruled out with a back injury. There could be a start for 18-year-old winger Callum Hudson-Odoi after he provided two assists in the 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Saturday. BBC has a quiz up to name the 2008 winning squad in 2 minutes. I got 12, and confirmation of Alzheimer's onset. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/46786515
I got 13 - and two of the misses were shameful. anyway, I've got to be at work at 2:30, so I will see none of this. with Man U at the weekend, you have to wonder if it will be a full strength side. y'know, back when we were shit - and still reaching the League Cup semis fairly regularly - i was fairly contemptuous of fans of the 'big four' who would bitch about the two-legged semis. 'You've got twice our depth and you complain; just get on with it, ya fairies', I'd think. now - despite us having far greater depth than we did back then - I kinda see their point. it really is a drain when you're competing on three other fronts. still, I hope we make a fist of it, and I really hope we get to the final. COYS, and all that.
I got 10, mainly because I am a lousy typist. Alan Hutton, believe it or not, is still playing at the Villa and scored a worldy earlier this season (I can remember him scoring a left-footed screamer against Bolton during the Redknapp era). Not a bad CB pairing of Woodgate and KIng, as good as any in football at the time, but so injury prone. With Berba and Keane up top, we had the makings of a decent side (remember, Bale had yet to establish himself as a regular), but unfortunately, between Daniel Levy, Daniel Comolli (director of football) and Juande Ramos we couldn't build on the squad and ended up losing both Keane and Berba in the close season without ably replacing them. It is only 10 years ago, but the club has progressed light years in all areas from where it was a decade ago.
The second leg has been confirmed at Stamford Bridge for Thursday, January 24th, 2:45 pm ET, which means our FA Cup tie against Palace will be played on Sunday, January 27th, time TBC, with a PL fixture vs. Watford to follow on Wednesday, January 30th. That means we will have played a total of 17 fixtures in December and January!
Here are the teams! Tottenham Gazzaniga Trippier Alderweireld Sánchez Rose Winks Sissoko Eriksen Alli Son Kane Substitutes Lloris Lamela Walker-Peters Llorente Foyth Davies Skipp Chelsea Arrizabalaga Azpilicueta Rüdiger Christensen Alonso Kanté Jorginho Barkley Willian Hazard Hudson-Odoi Substitutes Pedro Caballero Kovacic Giroud Zappacosta David Luiz Ampadu Referee: Michael Oliver
Away goals do not count as a tie-breaker and if the tie is level after the 2nd leg, it will go straight to penalties with no extra time.
Well, not exactly joga bonito by all accounts. The highlights I saw were pretty even, but comments suggested the second half performance was pants. Not every game can be dominant, and if we get results on off days like this, not too much is wrong in Spursland.
Nervy, jittery performance in the 2nd half but one full of character. Players prepared to give absolutely everything to keep the ball out. COYS!!!
They looked tired in the second half. Strong willpower to hold on in the second half because Chelsea was knocking on the door pretty hard.