Carabao Cup Semi-Final First Legs: Spurs lead Chelsea thanks to penalty, Manchester City have big lead over Burton Albion

This week saw the first legs of the two Carabao Cup semi-finals; Chelsea were away against Tottenham, and League One Burton Albion travelled to the Etihad to face Manchester City.

Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Chelsea
Kane's 26th minute penalty gave Spurs the advantage on Tuesday night.
The England skipper went down after a challenge by Blues keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga.
VAR was consulted to check that Kane was not offside in the attack and that Kepa's challenge was a foul.
It looked to me like Kane was anticipating contact, and as we so often see, he moved his right leg into the body of Kepa to initiate the contact, before throwing himself to the floor.
But Michael Oliver adjudged the contact to be worthy of a penalty kick, and Kane calmly slotted powerfully to Kepa's right.

Photo from GiveMeSport.com

Aside from the spot kick, both sides had chances to score, and with the deficit only one goal, Maurizio Sarri's team will feel it is still all to play for back at the Bridge on 24th January.
Chelsea struck the woodwork twice before the break; Kante's flicked ball at the near post and Gazzaniga's athletic save onto the post from Hudson-Odoi's deflected cross preserved the clean sheet for the Argentine keeper.
Christensen should have scored from six yards in the second half, while Kepa made a good stop to prevent Kane's brace.

It's back to Premier League action for both sides at the weekend. 
Chelsea host Newcastle on Saturday, while Tottenham welcome Manchester United to Wembley on Sunday.

Manchester City 9-0 Burton Albion
It was a much more eventful encounter at the Etihad.
Manchester City breezed past their League One competitors, they take a 9-0 advantage to the Pirelli stadium.
The result matches Pep Guardiola's biggest win as a manager, it also equals the record for the aggregate score for a semi-final in the League Cup.
In Burton's first semi-final outing in this competition, many of their fans were delayed due to M6 traffic, but still made it in time for kick-off.
Some of them may have wished that the traffic was a lot worse, to save them from witnessing their team being demolished.

Photo from Manchester Evening News

Kevin De Bruyne opened the scoring in the 5th minute, arriving late to meet David Silva's cross to score his first header in English football.
After a 25 minute wait for the 2nd goal, City scored 3 in 7 minutes to make it 4-0 at half time.
Gabriel Jesus scored a header on the half hour mark after Sane's shot looped up into the air from Collins' save.
He got his 2nd, and City's 3rd, three minutes later as David Silva unselfishly put it on a plate for Jesus to tap in, though questions were asked if Silva was offside.
Mike Dean took his time to take advice from VAR, but the Spaniard appeared to time his run to perfection before assisting Jesus.
Zinchenko made it 4 with what was intended to be a cross to the far post, but Collins was off his line and caught out by the Ukranian's over-hit pass, scoring his first City goal in the process.

Fraser had the first real chance in the 2nd half for the Brewers, his left footed strike from outside the box made sure that City replacement keeper Muric was still awake, his shot passing inches over the bar.
Jesus completed his hat trick on 57 minutes, Mahrez crossed the ball to the back post where the Brazilian had found some space to head into the top left corner.
Foden capitalised on great work from Jesus who should have scored, Collins made a good save but it fell kindly to the teenager for 6-0.
Minutes later and Jesus got his fourth! 
Mahrez switched it to Sane, the German took it down brilliantly and middled it for the advancing Jesus to tap in.
At this point, even the defenders wanted some of the action. 
Kyle Walker was in the box to receive Mahrez' low cross and calmly sidefooted the ball to make it eight.
Mahrez made it nine, in a match that had some great goals - this was not one of them.
His first shot was blocked, so he improvised with a toe poke that trickled past Collins on 83 minutes.

That's how it finished, on a record breaking night in Manchester, City were simply breathtaking at times - and that wasn't even their strongest XI!

We often see Premier League teams in cup competitions against lower league opposition, playing a weakened side and only scraping a victory or even losing.
Manchester City here showed the rest of the league how to play against a lesser team - play a strong XI, and go for it.
City will be able to relax in the away leg, and that would be the ideal occasion to play some of the fringe players.

Manchester City don't play again until Monday, when they will be hosting Wolves in the Premier League. Meanwhile, Burton welcome Gillingham to the Pirelli Stadium on Saturday in League One action.


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