Breaking News: Carling Cup draw brings forth the Birmingham derby
The Carling Cup draw for the quarter finals of the competition has brought forth some interesting ties as Birmingham have been drawn against their arch-rivals, Aston Villa. The knockout draw sees Birmingham City host Aston Villa; both the teams are staunch rivals from the West Midlands area. Not only that, they also face each other on the weekend in the English Premier League. However, this will be for the first time in five seasons that both the teams will meet in a cup knockout competition rather than in a league setup.
Manchester United and Arsenal sealed their place in the quarter finals of the tournament by defeating Wolverhampton Wanderers and Newcastle United at home respectively. United overpowered Wolves through a late Javier Hernandez goal to score a three goals to two win over Mick McCarthy’s side whereas Arsenal smashed three goals past Newcastle to book themselves a spot in the quarterfinals. Therefore, Arsenal face Wigan Athletic in the quarterfinals whereas the Red Devils face West Ham United at Upton Park.
Both the teams will be careful as they will be well aware of their opponent’s tendencies of pulling off a surprise result. However, one should expect Arsenal and Manchester United to win their respective quarterfinals against Wigan and West Ham United. Arguably, Arsenal have got the easiest encounter of the competition as they play at home against a weak Wigan side which has failed to impress thus far in the 2010-2011 season. In another low profile encounter, Roy Keane’s Ipswich Town comes up against Roberto De Matteo’s West Bromwich Albion. Both the teams will count themselves lucky as they have missed out on trips to either the Emirates stadium or the Saint Andrews Stadium.
The quarter finals of the Carling Cup will start from the week beginning on 29th of November, 2011. The whole draw is as follows:
Arsenal v Wigan
Birmingham v Aston Villa
West Ham v Manchester United
Ipswich v West Brom
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