Nottingham Forest – Manchester Utd

The favourite will win convincingly in regulation time

The second League Cup semi-final takes place in Nottingham, where they will face the latest entrant in what is known in England as the top clubs. The local club have deservedly made it to such a high stage of the tournament. Both modest Grimsby and Premier League sides Tottenham and Wolverhampton were on their way from the 1/32 finals. Of course, in the duels with the latter two, the Foresters were lucky with the home-field factor, but almost all of the victories were convincing. Only the Wolves had to struggle to decide the lucky winner in a penalty shoot-out. Manchester United started the tournament at the 1/16 final stage, and none of the clubs in the Red Devils' path were able to compete. Aston Villa, Burnley and Charlton all lost to MU by at least two goals. Bookmakers have identified Eric ten Hag's side as the favourites, with odds of around 1.65 to win. Nottingham Forest are not jumping out of their trousers this season, but they are exceeding all pre-season expectations. 13th place in the league does not allow the Foresters to feel comfortable in terms of the struggle to keep their place, because they are only four points away from the relegation zone. However, before the start of the season, Nottingham were considered to be the absolute outsiders in the league. In this case, the class of Cooper's team still does not allow them to achieve stable results. For example, last Saturday's away draw with Bournemouth resulted in only the third time this season that Nottingham Forest have not lost in three official meetings in a row. More than three consecutive unbeaten matches have never happened to the Forest side. Manchester United finally emerged as a cohesive unit after sending Ronaldo away in November. After the Mundial break, the Mancunian club went on a run of seven consecutive victories. The Red Devils advanced to both cups and also secured a place in the top-four in the league. The cherry on the cake was the derby victory over Manchester City, after which Crystal Palace and Arsenal took turns to cheer the team on. "The Glaziers reduced the match with MU to a draw in the closing stages of the game, while the Canaries also registered their first defeat for the Mancunians since the beginning of November with a goal in the 90th minute. Manchester United are objectively stronger than their opponents and, after two setbacks, should go into the match as determined as possible to win. And because the Mancunians have not won a title in over five years, a League Cup semi-final is definitely not to be shrugged off.