Capital One Cup Betting – Everton Meet Man. City in Semis
By Zack Garrison in News
Updated: January 17, 2018 at 9:39 am ESTPublished:
Everton (+550) at Manchester City (-187), Draw (+350)
Tomorrow (2:45 PM Eastern), Etihad Stadium will host the second leg of the Capital One Cup semifinal between Everton and Manchester City. The Citizens return home down 2-1 after dropping the first leg in Everton.
Man City’s loss in the first leg is great new for casual fans. The team will have to come out aggressive, knowing they can’t afford anything but a win if they want to advance. With a high-scoring (and defensively suspect) Everton squad on the other side of the pitch, tomorrow’s game should be an entertaining affair, to say the least.
City will be hoping to improve on its recent EPL play. Currently three back of Leicester at the top of the table, they let a couple points slip away in a 2-2 draw with West Ham on the weekend. It was their second draw in the last three games, and now consistency is becoming an issue.
The return of Argentinian striker Sergio Aguero helped – he scored both of City’s goals against West Ham – but wasn’t enough. The team’s other playmakers need to resurface if the Citizens are going to advance to the finals and continue to challenge for the EPL title.
Everton will also be looking to improve on its recent play. Currently 12th in the EPL table, the Toffeemen haven’t won in their last three (0-2-1). Like City, they left points on the table last time out, falling 2-1 to a bottom-feeding Swansea side.
“It’s a game that brings a scoreline which is very hard to take,” Everton boss Roberto Martinez told Sky Sports. “In the first half, we didn’t start as well as we can. I don’t think we were sharp enough and we were a little bit pedestrian.”
A Capital One Cup title is about the only way Everton will find itself in the European tournaments next year (the winner gets a spot in next season’s Europa League).
Manchester City and Everton have met three times this season; each side has one win and they drew the third.
The good news for Everton, who haven’t won at Etihad since 2010, is that they only need a draw to advance. The bad news is that Manuel Pellegrini is fighting for his job at Man City and – even though the Capital One Cup isn’t the team’s main goal for the season – will likely field a potent lineup in an effort to get the win and quiet his critics.
Take the home team to win at home by two scores, but it won’t be easy.
Pick: Manchester City (-2).Â
(Photo credit: Дмитрий Голубович [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)
Sports Writer
Zack is a tour guide whose favorite sports are football, baseball, and golf. He enjoys giving obnoxious commentary during games and hopes to some day write a book about sports. His favorite underdog victory was the Diamondbacks beating the Yankees in game 7 of the World Series.
