Middlesbrough-Chelsea is a match valid for the League Cup semi-finals first leg and is played on Tuesday at 9 p.m.: likely lineups and predictions.
In England it’s the domestic cups right now that take center stage, and after a weekend in which the FA Cup took center stage with its third round match it’s now the turn of the League Cup, the League Cup, which has already reached the semifinals.
As is the case with our Italian Cup, the semifinals is the only round of this competition that is played between round-trips, while the final will be decided by a dry match at Wembley. It starts with the match at the Riverside Stadium, which pits the hosts Middlesbrough, a formation that plays in the cadet league, against Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea. For Boro, a club that has been trying to return to the top flight for several years, it is a source of pride to have come within a step of the final and will face these two matches without great pressure. It’s a different matter for the Blues, for whom the League Cup (along with the FA Cup) is likely to become the only concrete goal in a season that has so far brought little satisfaction, with the Londoners only tenth in the Premier League and a long way from fourth place.
The importance of the cups for Chelsea
Pochettino’s team over the past weekend was busy in the FA Cup, where they made a meal of Preston, overwhelmed 4-0 at Stamford Bridge.
Third win in a row for Thiago Silva and teammates after those achieved in the league against Crystal Palace and Luton, beaten 2-1 and 3-2 respectively. Chelsea had to go through four rounds to advance to the semifinals, eliminating Wimbledon, Brighton, Blackburn and Newcastle, the latter taken out after penalty kicks. Only opponents within reach, on the other hand, for Middlesbrough, which got this far thanks to successes against Bolton, Bradford, Exeter and Port Vale. Last Saturday, Boro immediately waved goodbye to the FA Cup after a 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa, which unlocked the match three minutes from the end with Cash. In the Championship, the red and whites are not going through a good period: they are 12th and have lost four of their last five home games.
The prediction
Middlesbrough’s performance was moving in last Saturday’s showdown with Unai Emery’s men, managing to hold off a strong team like Aston Villa for almost an entire match, but they could pay for that effort in the semifinal first leg with Chelsea. Blues always mothballed by absences but should come away with a positive result from the Riverside Stadium, against an opponent they have beaten nine times in the last nine previous fixtures. The number of total goals will be less than four.
The likely Middlesbrough-Chelsea lineups
MIDDLESBROUGH (4-2-3-1): Glover; van den Berg, Clarke, Fry, Bangura; Howson, Barlaser; Jones, Crooks, Latte Lath; Coburn.
CHELSEA (4-2-3-1): Petrovic; Malo Gusto, Disasi, Thiago Silva, Colwill; Gallagher, Enzo Fernandez; Madueke, Palmer, Sterling; Broja.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 0-1
