Carling Cup betting preview
Manchester City v Manchester United, Tuesday 8pm
The BBC cameras will be televising a fascinating encounter on Tuesday evening, with the two clubs in Manchester clashing swords for the right to play either Aston Villa or Blackburn in the Carling Cup final next month. The bookies struggle to split the pair in terms of their odds on progressing, with the Red Devils marginal 4/5 favourites (Stan James) to reach their second consecutive final compared to the 11/10 (Sporting Bet) about City knocking out their arch-rivals and taking a step closer to some elusive silverware.
It’s possible that this competition means more to the blue half of the city and they are 6/4 (bet365) to draw first blood with a win in this first leg encounter. On Saturday at Everton, Roberto Mancini suffered his first setback since replacing Mark Hughes as manager, with his team second best at Goodison Park. He will hope that a passionate home crowd can encourage an improved performance and Carlos Tevez will surely not lack motivation against his former employers. The Argentine is 13/2 (Bet Fred) to open the scoring on Tuesday night and he has scored eleven goals in his past ten matches. Tevez is likely to be accompanied by Benjani (8/1 Blue Square) after Robinho’s lacklustre performance at the weekend.
Sir Alex Ferguson claims that his team will be ready for this tricky trip to the east side of Manchester and the Red Devils are a lumpy 2/1 (Sky Bet) to put themselves in the driving seat with a victory. It’s likely that the manager will field a strong team for the clash and the fact that Wayne Rooney (6/1 Coral) and Dimitar Berbatov (15/2 Blue Square) were withdrawn against Burnley suggests they could be lining up here. Antonio Valencia has been the star turn in recent weeks and the Ecuadorian is big at 12/1 (888sport) to score first. It’s a 23/10 chance (bet365) that the game finishes all square, a result which the visitors are more than capable of.
Aston Villa v Blackburn Rovers, Wednesday 7.45pm
The Villans are on the verge of Wembley after a 1-0 win at Ewood Park last week and it’s difficult not to see them progressing to the Carling Cup final. Although they failed to score against West Ham on Sunday, they might find plenty of gaps against a Blackburn team who need to score, with bet365 offering a best price 8/13 that they win in ninety minutes. Not that Martin O’Neill’s team need anything other than a draw (14/5 Boylesports) to be one step away from a piece of silverware, although it’s not in Villa’s nature to sit back and soak up pressure.
James Milner scored the only goal of the first leg and the England international is 8/1 (Paddy Power) to break the deadlock. Perhaps John Carew (5/1 Paddy Power) will be preferred to Emile Heskey (6/1 Blue Square) in attack, with the Norwegian having a much better goal-to-game ratio. For Rovers, scoring goals has been a problem for most of the season and Sam Allardyce is too reliant on David Dunn (11/1 Coral) to make things happen.
Nevertheless, Blackburn did knock out Chelsea at the quarter final stage and Villa have got everything to lose in this match. The visitors are 11/2 (Sky Bet) to win the tie and also 11/2 (Victor Chandler) to become the second team that Big Sam has steered to the Carling Cup final.