Midweek Cup Action

After another busy weekend with a lot of surprise results, we now switch our focus largely onto cup action during the week. The likes of Liverpool, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Bayern all dropped points over the weekend and some will be looking to bounce back and continue their respective cup runs. 

The Coppa Italia and EFL Cup are the main focus but there are also a number of fixtures from La Liga and Ligue 1 as well as a full round of ECL matches taking place on Thursday, ensuring that football fans don’t need to worry about any lack of action. 

Starting off with the EFL Cup, we have now reached the quarter-final stage and three matches will be played on Wednesday with Arsenal expecting to find their way past fellow London team Crystal Palace, Newcastle expecting to do the same against Brentford and Liverpool likely to get back to winning ways on the south coast against Southampton. The clash of the round takes place on Thursday when two of the top division’s underperforming teams, Tottenham and Manchester United take on each other in the last of the quarter-finals. 

The first of the Coppa Italia matches took place yesterday, with Juventus beating Cagliari 4-0. Atalanta will host Cesena on Wednesday in the late afternoon match and will also expect a relatively straightforward passage to the next round. The late match sees AS Roma take on Sampdoria in what is likely to be a more tightly fought affair. The final match of the round takes place on Tuesday when Inter host Udinese. 

There is one solitary match from Ligue 1 which takes place on Wednesday and it is an important one as third placed Monaco host leaders PSG with the visitors knowing that a win in the principality will give them an eight point lead in the table. There are also a couple of La Liga matches on Wednesday evening as Espanyol host Valencia and Villarreal play against Rayo Vallecano and there is another round of Turkish Cup matches. Highlights from the Thursday evening round from the ECL include Chelsea against Shamrock Rovers and Vitoria Guimaraes against Fiorentina. 

Monaco vs PSG

Monaco will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing week where they failed to score against Arsenal and Reims, both blows to their respective campaigns. They now go into this game seven points behind their opponents and will know that they really need a win to keep their title challenge alive. Marseille have overtaken them in the table, on goal difference. Monaco will know that they will need to call on their impressive home record to get the better of mighty PSG, they have only lost one of their last fourteen home matches, a run which started with a goalless encounter between these two teams last season.

PSG will know that this is one of the tougher tests that they will face this season. They managed an important 3-1 win over in-form Lyon at the weekend and have eleven wins from their fifteen matches so far, with no defeats at this point. PSG will be wary of this match though as Monaco are the last Ligue 1 team to beat them. They have drawn three of their last five away matches, so three points isn’t guaranteed. The 40 goals scored by PSG is by far the most in the league and almost double what Monaco have managed (24). 

PSG have won four of the last ten meetings between the two with Monaco also managing four, so there isn’t much to choose between them in recent history. 

Tottenham vs Manchester United

Tottenham registered an impressive win on Sunday, albeit against bottom team Southampton, when they scored five goals without reply in a first half goal blitz. That result brought an end to what was a disappointing run of five games without a win and it sets them up nicely for what is set to be a pivotal match this season, a quarter-final clash in the EFL Cup. Silverware has been something that fans of the club have craved for years and surely it must be a priority to win a trophy rather than simply aim for European football again this season. Manager Ange Postecoglou won the Scottish equivalent of this trophy in both of his seasons in charge of Celtic and it is the last trophy that Tottenham have won, back in 2008. They might be at home for this tie but that hasn’t really helped them much of late as they are on a four game winless run. James Maddison is a man in form for the home side, having scored two goals last weekend, but he has never managed a goal against United in eleven attempts. 

Manchester United recorded a memorable away win over rivals Manchester City on Sunday, grabbing two late goals to inflict further pain on the stuttering defending champions. Once again, there were positive signs but by no means was it a great performance and Ruben Amorim will be wanting more from his players in this quarter-final as the chance to win silverware in his first season isn’t far away. Jose Mourinho and Erik Ten Hag both won this tournament in their first season in charge in Manchester, but United have failed to win on any of the last four visits to Tottenham. Amad Diallo is the man in form for the Red Devils, having contributed eight goals in his last nine matches. 

Tottenham have three wins from the last ten clashes between these two, including an impressive 3-0 win at Old Trafford in September. United last beat Tottenham in October 2022, one of four wins in the last ten meetings.  

PS: Odds might have changed since the writing and publication of this article.

Last updated: 18.12.24