THE STRIKER: previews the Carabao Cup semi-final between MANCHESTER UNITED v MANCHESTER CITY at 7.45pm on Wednesday with extended stats and a recommended BETDAQ bet.
The Striker is a professional football punter who focused solely on football in the UK. He has over ten years of experience using exchanges and he’s been a full-time professional punter for more than five years. UK football is his edge and he sticks to it!
Thankfully The Striker has agreed to share his best bets with BETDAQ Tips! He will use a staking system between one and five points to give readers a clue as to how confident he is with each individual bet. He uses his own analysis to price up matches and loves advanced stats like xG, goal stats and current form.
MANCHESTER UNITED V MANCHESTER CITY
7.45pm We’re in for a treat on Wednesday night as we have a Manchester Derby for the Carabao Cup semi-final! It comes at an excellent time too with both sides going well in the Premier League. It’ll be very interesting to see the team sheets – do the managers opt to rest any players given the busy schedule or name their best XI against their bitter rivals. I’m sure we’ll see some market movement on BETDAQ Betting Exchange around the team news.
With the weekend being an FA Cup, it’s highly likely we see strong XI’s here and the managers can rest players against weaker opposition the weekend. United may have been knocked out of the Champions League on the final matchday, however they now find themselves joint top of the Premier League with a game in hand. I have been saying for a few weeks that they don’t look like title challengers, but with each passing week they move into a better position.
With Liverpool losing to Southampton Monday night, City are moving into a great position in the Premier League too after a very slow start by their standards. While this is Cup football, it’s fascinating to see what happens. Both sides will be full of confidence, but for me I’d rather be on City at 2.04. Although United have been playing nicely, they still concede too many goals for me. The sides played out a boring 0-0 draw here in December but the xG numbers said City were the better side.
When you look at the list of fixture for United, they might be winning from bad positions but they are also conceding a lot and you can’t do that against the top sides. They’ve conceded two against Southampton, Sheffield United, Leeds and Leicester recently, they might have scored three times or more – but they won’t do that against City. Looking at City’s xG figures, they are starting to create a lot more chances which is a very good sign for them.
Much has been made about City’s problems at the back, but this season they have dropped points because they haven’t been creating the same volume of chances but the xG figures are creeping back up. Results will follow and you’re likely to see them right in the mix at the top of the Premier League table in the coming weeks. For tonight though, they can outscore this United side and I’d have them odds on.
The Striker Says:
Two points win Manchester City to beat Manchester United at 2.06 on BETDAQ Betting Exchange
You can view all markets here -> http://bit.ly/BDQMunMnc
MATCH STATS
- This is the fourth time Man Utd and Man City have met in the League Cup semi-finals, also doing so in 1969-70, 2009-10 and 2019-20, the joint-most of any fixture along with Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur.
- The away team won both the League Cup semi-final legs between Man Utd and Man City last season (3-1 City first leg, 1-0 United second leg), with the Citizens going through 3-2 on aggregate.
- Manchester United are unbeaten in their last three games against Man City in all competitions (W2 D1) without conceding a goal. They haven’t gone four without defeat against their rivals since February 2011.
- The home team has ended on the winning side in just three of the last 14 matches between Man Utd and Man City in all competitions (D3 L8).
- This is Manchester United’s 16th appearance in the League Cup semi-finals, with the Red Devils progressing to the final nine times. However, they have lost two of their last three semi-final ties in the competition, having progressed from eight of nine before that.
- Manchester City have progressed from each of their last five League Cup semi-final ties, going on to win the trophy each time. The Citizens are looking to become just the second side to reach four consecutive League Cup finals, after Liverpool who did so between 1981 and 1984.
- Seven of Manchester United’s eight goals in the League Cup this season have been scored by different players (Mata x2, Rashford, Greenwood, McTominay, Pogba, Martial, Cavani). They last had more in 2016/17, when they went on to win the competition (9).
- Manchester City have lost just two of their 23 League Cup matches under Pep Guardiola (W17 D4), though both defeats have come versus Manchester United (in 2016 and 2020). Guardiola has lost three of his six matches against Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (50%), his worst loss percentage against any manager he’s faced at least five times.
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