PALACE, LIVERPOOL HAVE CARLING EDGE

 

 

The Carling Cup semi finals tend to be an interesting enough watch from a neutral perspective, one of the few two legged ties remaining in domestic English football and the prize is after all a Cup final. From a United perspective, well this was not our season as far as this competition was concerned and we went out in the quarter finals. As I said though, the latter stages of the competition are still worth a watch, despite a lot of fans not taking it that seriously. Some decent quality football is usually ensured in these matches as in a lot of cases, the teams involved see this as their best shot at a trophy. Some, time to see how things were going to play out.

The last time Crystal Palace made the semi finals of the League Cup, the competition was known as the Worthington Cup and they lost 6-2 on aggregate to Premiership Liverpool with Andrejs Rubins and Clinton Morrison scoring for them in the 1st leg in 00/01. They have never reached the final of this competition though, ever since it started up in 1960/61! For the last time Cardiff made the League Cup semis, the competition had no sponsership and they got caned 10-3 on aggregate by the all-conquering West Ham of that time with John Toshack in the Cardiff team that season. Like Palace though the Bluebirds have never reached the final of the competition since it got started up and so this was a seriously big deal for them.

Fastforward to the present day and this clash was an all-Championship affair with Cardiff near the top of the division while Palace were at the bottom end. Dougie Freedman's side clearly aren't mugs though as they're the side that KOd United in the previous round. Both sides are gaffered by relatively young Scottish managers with Palace gaffer Dougie Freedman having previously played for the club and both and and Malkie Makay are former internationals. Not that that counted for too much in this Carling Cup semi final 1st leg tie at Selhurst Park though the pressure was a bit more on Palace given that they were the home side.

Well Cardiff certainly had the better of the early stages with the Palace goalie being given plenty of headaches but the home side had a fired up crown to satisfy and that sort of start was less than ideal if you were an Eagles fan. As it was though the home side did eventually start to go through the gears and as the half drew to a close they were starting to run the show themselves. They broke through in the 43rd minute when Mile Jedinak headed on a Darren Ambrose freekick to Anthony Gardner who headed it into the net. Suddenly the Eagles were in business and while a second goal would help seal the tie, they certainly had something to build on now.

In the early stages of the second half, Cardiff were determined to get an equaliser and even managed to hit the net but Kenny Miller's header was ruled out for a supposed foul on the Palace goalie and the home side also had their chances to grab a second. In the latter stages, the home side were once again starting to look superior but Cardiff were able to dodge the bullets that came their way though Palace were able to cruise their way to the finish, much to the delight of their fans. A one goal win at home is not enough to seal the tie for the Eagles though and Cardiff could easilly still be the ones making club history by heading to Wembley.

The last time Man City reached the semi finals of the Carling Cup was back in 09/10. Their opponents on that occasion were United with the 1st leg at the City of Manchester Stadium and City eventually losing 4-3 on aggregate. The last time they won a League Cup semi final was back in 1975/76 when they beat Middlesborough 4-1 on aggregate with Joe Royle as a striker that season. The last time Liverpool made the Carling Cup semi finals was back in 04/05 when Rafa Benitez was their manager. They faced Watford on that occasion and beat the lower leaguers 2-0 on aggregate with a goal in each leg for a pretty straightforward trip to the final.

Fastforward to the present day and we were faced with the only all-Premiership semi of this years' competition. Now City came into this tie as the Premiership leaders still but having already been knocked out of the Champions League and FA Cup, suddenly had a lot to prove here. Pool haven't been firing on full cylinders for a few years in terms of major honours and now have a real sniff of a trophy. There was certainly enough to make this Carling Cup semi final 1st leg match at what is now known as the Etihad Stadium a potentially tasty affair. On their turf though, this still looked like a must-win for the Blues, a chance to show they'd recovered getting dumped out of the other cup by United.

Well a weakened City defence looked particularly vulnerable from the start and it began to give way in the 13th minute, conceding a penalty which Steven Gerrard(who also got both goals in the '05 semi) slotted, City tried to respond but there was a bit too much red mist with some of their players. For the bulk of the half, Pool were obviously the better side with City looking amazingly flat only to start to turn the heat up near the end of the half but ultimately it counted for nothing. So far it couldn't get much better for Kenny Dalgleish's crew and Roberto Mancini was already looking like he'd need to rouse the troops just to have a chance of staying in the tie.

Unlike in the United game, City were not able to hit the ground running in terms of turning the game round and Liverpool were just able to be stubborn and smother their efforts. In fact Dalgleish's attitude appeared to be very much "what we have hold" and to be fair, you couldn't really blame him at this stage of the tie. The City fans were pretty much silent as their team just did not look like getting back into things. Right at the end, Sergio Aguerro came within an inch of getting an equaliser but it ended up on the roof of the net. Bottom line is, City have their work cut out now, they could very well be out of both domestic competitions by the end of the month.

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