2024/25 Carabao Cup: Round of 16 Round-Up

An exciting evening of matches in the Carabao Cup saw a number of teams secure their place in the Quarter Finals of this season’s Carabao Cup.

We are now heading towards the latter stages of the 2024/25 Carabao Cup, and across Tuesday and Wednesday, football clubs went head to head in the Round of 16 looking for a place in the Quarter Finals of this season’s competition.

Heading into the Round of 16, all of the clubs came from the Premier League except for one – Preston North End. Preston are currently playing their football in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English Football.

The most eye-catching tie of the round saw Ange Postecoglou and this Spurs side take on current Premier League Champions Manchester City at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. North London rivals Arsenal were facing Championship counterparts Preston away from home.

Brighton and Liverpool met on the South Coast at the Amex Stadium, whilst the other ties saw Manchester United face Leicester City, Newcastle play Chelsea, whilst Unai Emery and Aston Villa went toe to toe with Oliver Glasner’s Crystal Palace at Villa Park.

Here, we are going to review the action from the Round of 16 of the 2024/25 Carabao Cup, starting with Tottenham against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in North London.

Tottenham 2 – 1 Manchester City (Tottenham Hotspur Stadium)

First up is the game that was widely seen as the biggest tie of the Round of 16, with Spurs and Manchester City facing each other at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with a place in the Quarter Final at stake.

It was an extraordinary performance from all of the players representing Spurs, whose collective effort was rewarded with a 2 – 1 victory against the reigning Premier League Champions.

Spurs found themselves in the lead very early on when Timo Werner found the net for the first time this season in all competitions, with his shot finding the bottom right corner after receiving a pass from fellow forward Dejan Kulusevski (5’).

Central Midfielder Pape Matar Sarr then scored an extraordinary goal to double his side’s advantage with the ball finding the bottom right corner from long range. This was the second assist of the game for Sweden international Kulusevski (25’).

Matheus Nunes did pull a goal back to halve the hosts’ lead (45+3’), but it did remain 2 – 1 to Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham Hotspur.

It was Man City who had the superior share of possession with 68.4% compared with Spurs’ 31.6%. Tottenham did have more shots on target with 7 compared with the Cityzen’s 3 overall. Spurs had 11 shots overall to City’s 15.

Brighton 2 – 3 Liverpool (Amex Stadium)

We now move on to a five goal thriller between Fabian Hürzeler’s Brighton and Arne Slot’s Liverpool at the Amex Stadium on the South Coast on Wednesday night. It was a 3 – 2 win in the end for the Reds, who successfully secured their spot in the Quarter Finals.

The first half of the game did end goalless, but it did not take long for the Reds to take the lead in the second half. Dutch forward Cody Gakpo gave Liverpool the lead after finding the top right corner from within the penalty area after central midfielder Tyler Morton had found him with an accurate pass (46’). Gakpo then doubled his own and his team’s goal tally for the day when he scored again with less than half an hour of the game remaining (63’).

Simon Adingra pulled a goal back with just under ten minutes to go (81’), before Luis Diaz restored Liverpool’s two goal advantage, making it 3 – 1 just moments after Adringra’s strike for the Seagulls (85’). Tariq Lamptey did manage to score for the hosts which made it 3 – 2 (90’), but Liverpool still managed to come away with the win.

The Reds had the most possession of the ball with 55.2% compared with the Seagulls’ total of 44.8%. Both teams had 7 shots on target each, with Brighton having the most shots on goal in total with 19 compared with Liverpool’s 11.

Manchester United 5 – 2 Leicester City (Old Trafford)

In the Carabao Cup Round of 16 fixture between Manchester United and Leicester City, it was to be a seven goal thriller, with Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Red Devils beating the Foxes 5 – 2 at Old Trafford to secure their place in the Quarter Finals of this season’s League Cup competition.

United took the lead thanks to a wondergoal from their Brazilian midfielder Casemiro (15’) before Argentine forward Alejandro Garnacho doubled the hosts’ advantage at the Theatre Of Dreams with almost half an hour of the game having gone (28’).

Bilal El Khannouss did manage to pull a goal back for Leicester City shortly after that second goal, to make it 2 – 1 (33’). Bruno Fernandes promptly made it 3 – 1 just three minutes later (36’), before Casemiro made it 4 – 1 (39’). England central defender Conor Coady scored in first half stoppage time – 4 – 2 (45+3’). Fernandes did put the game out of sight early on in the second half to make it 5 – 2 (59’).

It was the hosts, Manchester United, who had the most possession with 56.4% compared with Leicester City’s 43.6%. United had 9 shots on target to Leicester’s 7, whilst the Red Devils also had the most shots in general with 23 compared with the Foxes’ total of 16.

Preston North End 0 – 3 Arsenal (Deepdale)

The next game on this list did end up being more one sided than the games that have been looked back on so far – Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal travelled to Lancashire to face EFL Championship outfit Preston North End at the historic Deepdale. The Gunners ended up coming away as emphatic and deserved 3 – 0 winners.

Brazilian forward Gabriel Jesus gave the Gunners the lead early on in the first half (24’) before an incredible goal from just outside of the penalty area from 17 year old central midfielder Ethan Nwaneri just after half an hour had elapsed. (33’). Kai Havertz put the game out of Preston’s reach in the early stages of the second half (57’).

Possession was dominated throughout the game by Arsenal, with Mikel Arteta’s side having no less than 74.1% of the ball, whilst Preston had 25.9% of the ball in comparison. Unsurprisingly, the side visiting from North London did have the most shots on target (10) compared to the hosts’ 2, whilst their 18 total shots were more than the home side’s 7.

Newcastle United 2 – 0 Chelsea (St. James’s Park)

Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea faced a trip to St. James’s Park on Tyneside in the latest round of fixtures in the Carabao Cup.  In the end, Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United got the better of the Blues in the end, beating their West London counterparts 2 – 0.

Swedish striker Alexander Isak gave Newcastle the advantage in the early stages of the first half (23’), before an unfortunate own goal from Blues central defender Alex Disasi just a few minutes later (26’). It was 2 – 0 to the hosts before half an hour had even elapsed in the game in the first half. This is how the scoreline stayed for the rest of the game.

Chelsea did have more possession with 65.5%, whilst the Magpies had 34.5%. The Blues had the most shots on target with 4, with Newcastle having 2. Chelsea had 17 shots in general compared with Newcastle United’s 8.

Aston Villa 1 – 2 Crystal Palace (Villa Park)

We now take a look at the Round of 16 tie between Unai Emery’s Aston Villa and Oliver Glasner’s Crystal Palace at Villa Park on Wednesday night. It was a 2 – 1 victory for the visiting Eagles in B6, knocking their West Midlands hosts out of this year’s competition.

Palace took the lead early on through Eberechi Eze, who found the back of the Villa net within the first ten minutes of the game (8’). The in-form Jhon Duran did manage to equalise for Villa with a goal with almost twenty five minutes gone (23’). Daichi Kamada then scored the winning goal for the visitors from South London with less than half an hour remaining in the game (64’).

It was the hosts Aston Villa who had the most possession with 62.2% of the ball compared with 37.8% for Crystal Palace. Villa had a total of 9 shots on target, whilst Palace had 2. The home team also had 17 shots on goal compared to 12 for the Eagles.

Other Results

Here are the other results from the Round of 16 of the 2024/25 Carabao Cup:

• Southampton 3 – 2 Stoke City (Taylor Harwood-Bellis 19’, Adam Armstrong 35’ – Penalty & James Bree 88’; Ashley Phillips 45’ & Thomas Cannon 54’).
• Brentford 1 – 1 (5 – 4 on penalties) Sheffield Wednesday (Kevin Schade 11’; Djeidi Gassama 57’).

2024/25 Carabao Cup Quarter Final Draw

Below is the draw in full for the 2024/25 Carabao Cup Quarter Final, which took place on Wednesday night.

• Arsenal vs. Crystal Palace (Emirates Stadium).
• Newcastle United vs. Brentford (St. James’s Park).
• Southampton vs. Liverpool (St. Mary’s Stadium).
• Spurs vs. Manchester United (Tottenham Hotspur Stadium).

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