Nottingham Forest-Manchester United is a League Cup semi-final first leg match and is played on Wednesday at 9pm: line-ups, predictions.
The League Cup 2022-23 has so far provided plenty of surprises. Many big teams have fallen in the previous rounds and in the semi-finals there are two teams who are currently in the fight not to be relegated, such as Southampton and Nottingham Forest.
The Tricky Trees have the honour of taking on Manchester United in the penultimate act of the event. The semi-final is the only round of the League Cup to be played as a return leg, and at the City Ground the first of two challenges for a ticket to the final at Wembley will take place. Forest defeated Wolverhampton on penalties in the previous round, while the Red Devils overwhelmed Charlton 3-0. What has just ended, however, was a bittersweet weekend for the two coaches, Steve Cooper and Erik ten Hag. The Nottingham Forest coach took another small step towards salvation, avoiding defeat in the direct clash with Bournemouth (1-1): fourth result in a row after the draw with Chelsea and the two successes with Southampton and Leicester. Eight points allowed the Reds to make a big leap up the table, taking them to +4 above the relegation zone.
Forest into the semi-finals after 31 years
The club meanwhile are continuing to strengthen the squad: striker Wood has arrived from Newcastle and young talent from Palmeiras Danilo. In short, Forest can concentrate on this semi-final – reached for the first time in 31 years – without thinking too much about what happens in the league.
Cooper
Manchester United, meanwhile, will be looking to drown out the disappointment of London’s defeat-beating against leaders Arsenal, which arguably incinerated the Red Devils’ hopes of returning to title contention. Punished by a Nketiah goal in the 90th minute (3-2), ten Hag’s men had to reckon with their first disappointment since last November after a long run of positive results. The League Cup, however, remains a real objective and, with City out of the way, United are the big favourites to lift the cup at Wembley.
The Prediction
Ten Hag will play with the starters and Cooper will do the same. Last December 27th at Old Trafford United won easily with a 3-0 victory, this time we believe that the Red Devils may find it a bit more difficult, considering the improvements of Nottingham Forest and the fact that many big names suffered at the City Ground. We believe it will be a tight match, in which the total goals should be at least two.
The likely line-ups for Nottingham Forest-Manchester United
- NOTTINGHAM FOREST (4-3-1-2): Hennessey; Aurier, Worrall, Boly, Renan Lodi; Mangala, Danilo, Freuler; Scarpa; Johnson, Gibbs-White.
- MANCHESTER UNITED (4-2-3-1): De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Varane, Lisandro Martinez, Malacia; Casemiro, Eriksen; Antony, Bruno Fernandes, Rashford; Weghorst.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 1-2
