Manchester United won the first leg of the League Cup semifinal against Nottingham Forest 3-0 last week. This time, it is time for the two teams to meet again, but now at Old Trafford. Here is everything you need to know ahead of that clash.
Team News
This match will be the one in which many will expect Ten Hag to make some bigger changes in the lineup, in order to rest some of the main players ahead of the hectic schedule that awaits the team in February. Christian Eriksen got injured against Reading and his season is almost over, considering he could come back in late April or early May. The Dane is therefore joining Donny van de Beek, Axel Tuanzebe, Diogo Dalot and Scott McTominay among the injured players, while it still remains to be seen wheteher Luke Shaw will be able to feature after his illness. It will be interesting to see whether Ten Hag will choose to give some of the younger guys a chance to start, such as Alejandro Garnacho or Anthony Elanga.
But Nottingham Forest will have problems of their own. Morgan Gibbs-White will not be able to play as he suffered an injury similar to that of Eriksen. He joined a long list of players Forest will not have on disposal. Giulian Biancone, Cheikhou Kouyate, Omar Richards, Moussa Nikhate, Taiwo Awoniyi – they are all out. But also, there is Dean Henderson who will not be participating either, as Man United are his parent club and he is thus unavailable. So many players out of contention could mean Jesse Lingard could get another return to action at Old Trafford.
Form Guide
Manchester United are in great form so far in the past few months, with only two matches they didn’t win post-World Cup. After their incredible winning streak was ended with the 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace, the Devils lost 3-2 to Arsenal. But since then, they have picked themselves in the two cup competitions. In the first leg match against Forest, it was the comfortable 3-0 win that got the Devils inches away from the big final at Wembley. Last weekend, they scored three again, this time in the fourth round FA Cup matches against Reading, earning the 3-1 victory on their way to the next round.
Nottingham Forest, however, have not played as much as Erik Ten Hag’s team. Last weekend, they were not in action, due to their loss in the third round of the FA Cup against Blackpool 4-1. Since then, they managed to reach the League Cup semis with a win against Wolves after the penalty shoot-out, and beat Leicester in the league. But the 1-1 draw at Bournemouth was followed by the abovementioned loss against United. Since that match, they had an entire week to rest, but that will hardly be of much help to overturn such a big deficit at Old Trafford.
Predicted Outcome
Considering the first leg win and the form of the two sides, we predict Manchester United will get a drab 1-0 win in this one. Nottingham Forest don’t have the quality to make a huge surprise here and get to the final, while United will want to get the job done with the least amount of energy spent. All in all, we predict Man United will reach the final at Wembley without any problems.
Leave a Reply