Carling Cup Final Tickets. Buy Carling Cup Final Tickets
The final takes place at Wembley on Sunday, 1 March.
And then there were four. Wednesday’s Carling Cup action did not provide the upsets that Tuesday night did, as Manchester United and Spurs both avoided the upsets that tripped up fellow Premier League teams Arsenal and Stoke on Tuesday.
At Old Trafford Carlos Tevez scored four times as Manchester United beat Blackburn Rovers 5-3. Tevez opened the scoring before setting up United’s second with five minutes remaining in the first-half. He bundled home Ryan Giggs’ far-post corner nine minutes from the break, then provided the pass that allowed Nani to grab number two shortly afterwards.
Blackburn threatened to make a comeback when Benni McCarthy scored just three minutes after the break, but the likelihood of Paul Ince getting one over on his former manager Sir Alex Ferguson appeared to have been snuffed out by Tevez, who scored two quick-fire goals soon after.
Matt Derbyshire pulled one back for the visitors on 84 minutes, and McCarthy netted his second of the match in the second minute of injury time. Tevez scored his fourth of the match with seconds to spare to book United’s place in the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, holders Tottenham Hotspur went a goal behind at Vicarage Road before coming back to beat Watford 2-1. Tamas Priskin opened the scoring for the home side, with Aaron Lennon guilty of losing the ball in the build-up. Roman Pavlyuchenko’s penalty on the stroke of half-time leveled for the visitors, before Darren Bent’s goal mid-way through the second-half gave the Barclays Premier League side the advantage.
The upsets took place on Tuesday when Championship outfit Burnley saw off Arsene Wenger’s young guns with a 2-0 quarter-final triumph thanks to a double strike from Kevin McDonald. The midfielder put the Clarets in front after six minutes from close range when keeper Lukasz Fabianski spilled the ball into his path. McDonald got his second 12 minutes into the second half with a curling effort to seal his side’s passage into the semi-finals.
In the other quarter-final, striker Nathan Ellington’s stoppage time penalty gave Derby County a narrow 1-0 win over Stoke. Stoke star Andy Griffin handled in the penalty area on 94 minutes and Ellington coolly put away the spot-kick to send the Championship side into the Carling Cup semi-finals for the first time in 40 years.
The draw for the home and home semi-final takes place on Saturday and Burnley and Derby must be hoping to draw each other as that will increase the likelihood that one of them will be playing in Europe next season.
