Our live stream ahead of Wednesdays EFL Cup quarter-final match between Stoke and Tottenham is now up, kicking off at 17.30 GMT
You can keep an eye on the commentary as it happens below, but first, we take a preview into the fixture, lineups, predictions and much more…
Stoke come into the game unbeaten in their last three matches with a place in the semi-finals is up for grabs for only the second time since 1971-72.
The Potters will take heart from the fact that they have already beaten Premier League sides Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aston Villa in this season’s competition.
Another clean sheet against Spurs would see them become the first non-Premier League side to keep five on the bounce in this competition since Preston North End from 1997 to 1999, and could also help them to reach the semi-finals as a non-top flight club for the very first time.
Tottenham, however, have suffered back-to-back defeats against fellow high-flyers Liverpool and Leicester City. That coupled with a draw at Crystal Palace before that – have seen Jose Mourinho’s side plummet from first to fifth in the Premier League in the space of seven days.
Spurs’ 2008 triumph remains their last piece of silverware of any kind and so this match will hold plenty of importance for Mourinho, who has already lifted the trophy four times as a manager and has progressed from 26 of his 31 League Cup ties in the past.
Only North London rivals Arsenal have appeared at this stage of the competition more often than Spurs.
Spurs have won their last five games against Stoke across all competitions, with four of those victories came by a four-goal margin.
The two clubs last met in an April 2018 Premier League tie, with Spurs winning 2-1 at Stoke…
PRESS CONFERENCE:
Michael O’Neill
On Stokes covid situation
“We got our results back yesterday afternoon and everyone has tested negative. That was a good boost for us.”
“In general, yes, it’s always a concern when you’re seeing games cancelled. I think to be honest, I thought it might have happened earlier than now and a little bit more frequently than it has happened.”
“The situation is what it is, we just have to deal with it.”
“As a club we’ve handled the situation well. We’ve had one or two players who have missed games because of periods of self-isolation.”
“But overall we’ve been pretty consistent and not been at a stage where these clubs are who have had to cancel games.”
Is John Obi Mikel fit and who will play in goal?
“John won’t be fit in time for the game. It was a game he was very keen to be involved in but he had a little set back on Friday and we’ve just got to manage him over this week for the game on Saturday to see if he’s ready for that.”
“We’ve had a difficult situation in goal. We’ve got four senior goalkeepers out now if you include Joe Bursik.”
“Adam Davies and Angus Gunn are still injured and Niki Maenpaa basically got injured on the first day he arrived here with a thumb injury.”
“Joe Bursik, who we recalled from loan at Doncaster and has played in the last eight games, is unfortunately cup-tied because we allowed him to play in the competition earlier for Doncaster.”
“Our choice in goal is either young Blondy Nna Noukeu, a young Belgian goalkeeper, or Andy Lonergan, who we signed as a cover for Joe as well.”
Is Andy Lonergan well? And if it is Blondy, what a game for him!
“Yes, it would be a huge game.”
“Andy is fine, he’s trained the last couple of days and it will be either him or Andy that will play.”
“Blondy has been around the first team now for the best part of nine months. He’s done very well. He’s been on the bench on a number of occasions and if he’s asked to play it’s a great opportunity for him. He only has to look at the likes of Joe Bursik, a young goalkeeper who has taken that opportunity.”
“If he’s given the nod, he’ll get it with every confidence from me.”
You’ve beaten Villa and Wolves, why not Spurs?
“Exactly. That’s the message we have to hammer home to the players. We did very well to get back the opposition you mentioned, particularly Villa when we played extremely well. Wolves was a tight game as well.”
“The pleasing thing for us in the competition is that we’ve had four clean sheets. It’s been a good opportunity to introduce younger players into the team at the start of the season and those younger players have gone on to play a number of league games as well.”
“It’s a more challenging situation for us now. We’re 20 league games in and we’ve had a number of injuries. The management of the squad is a little bit more difficult because of the injuries and the stage of the season we’re at.”
“It will be a tough test; a game when we’ve everything to gain and that’s how we’ll approach it.”
Eight changes v Villa – how key is rotation and are you expecting a major change from Jose?
“We won’t be able to rotate to the same extent we were earlier in the season because of the players we have unavailable to us. There will be some change to the team. I think it’s necessary that we do freshen it up.”
“We’ve got some players who have played a lot of minutes. We’ve been playing essentially every mid-week since the last international break.”
“We believe that we will pick a team with energy, a team with freshness and a team that will try to go and win the game.”
“It’s difficult to gauge really about Spurs. They have only played one game in the competition coming into the last 16. We’ve looked at the Europa League starting line-ups as well.”
“But if you look at the bench on Sunday, it gives you an idea of the quality they have and can utilise in this game if they made significant changes.”
“We don’t really know what to expect so we’ve prepared the boys, primarily, on ourselves. We are aware that whatever team Tottenham put out will be a high standard.”
What have you made of Spurs under Mourinho? They haven’t won in three in the Premier League
“Like anything, these things sometimes are exaggerated. They will be disappointed to lose at home to Leicester, obviously, a team that is in a similar situation to them in the league.”
“They were unlucky, I felt, to lose to a last minute goal at Liverpool.”
“Other than that, up to that point, they were having a great season and people were talking about them being title contenders. It doesn’t change in the space of a week.”
“They’ve had two results that I’m sure they would rather not have had but they are still a team with a lot to play for this season.”
How much are you relishing your defence taking on Spurs’ attack?
“We’ve done extremely well but it’s not something we’ve focused on overly in terms of keeping clean sheets.”
“We’ve kept clean sheets despite the challenges we’ve had with our goalkeeping situation, we’ve kept clean sheets despite having to make changes in our defensive shape, whether we’ve played with a back three or a back four. Our defenders have probably the ones who have been missing most with either injuries or Covid situations.”
“That’s testament to the team as a whole and how we’ve defended as a team.”
“We will come up against a different calibre of player than what we do in the Championship in this game. It’s a great test for those players, the likes of Harry Souttar and Nathan Collins, Josh Tymon. Those are all young players who can play in the defensive shape for us.”
“It’s similar in some ways to at Northern Ireland, when we always had to ask players to step up. Sometimes they were playing League One, maybe Championship football and suddenly they were playing against the top German players, the top players from across Europe, the Dutch players.”
“That’s what we require again here, just to give the players the opportunity, have faith in them, have belief. They’ve got everything to gain from a game like this.”
History suggests Mourinho takes this competition seriously?
“Yes, of course. The EFL Cup presents the first trophy you can win in any season and I think Jose Mourinho has always approached it with a positive and serious attitude to doing that. He’s done it at Chelsea and subsequently at Manchester United.”
“We don’t expect Tottenham to come here and for anything other than for them to try to win the game.”
“Whatever team they put out given the quality in their squad and depth of their squad, it’s going to present a huge challenge to us. We can’t focus too much on that, it has to be on our game, making life difficult for them, make an uncomfortable night for them. It would be a much easier thing to do if there were fans in the stadium.”
“There will be a number of players in that team who will have played at Stoke in the Premier League and will know what that’s like but unfortunately we won’t have that backing. The responsibility lies within our group to create that cup tie atmosphere in terms of us as a team and how we approach the game.”
A cup quarter-final 48 hours before Christmas – can you give fans a present by winning? Have you already given them a present by getting here?
“I suppose this is an early Christmas present. If we can win this game it will lead to another game against another high calibre team.”
“Having come this far in the competition, we want to make sure we give everything possible on the night to get to the step. The fact that the game is 90 minutes and we don’t have the thought of dealing with extra-time helps.”
“What we’ve proven is that we’ve beaten two Premier League teams in the four games we’ve played to get to this stage and that gives us belief we can do the same again.”
Jose Mourinho
On starting eleven…
“I think a mixture. I think we need some players who need to play and deserve to play,”
“From the ones that are playing more times, others where we don’t have great options to make changes and have to keep them but I will try to give a little bit of a rest to two or three.”
On Stokes away changing rooms
“Yes, I have a video of it, a video made from a colleague that works for another team that recently played against them,”
“I was not going to raise the question. You raised that question. But it should not be a question for me. It should be a question for the authorities, All the authorities. Football authority. Safety authorities. But not for me.
“I am not going to be the bad guy that is going to make comments about Stoke’s away dressing room.”
On winning the EFL Cup
“To win this tournament we need to win three matches. One against Stoke and then, if we beat Stoke, we will have two more matches to play. Against teams who have the same ambitions as we have,”
“If I am not wrong, Man City, Arsenal, Man United. Everton, Newcastle, Brentford, everybody wants the same. The difference between Championship and Premier League is minimal.”
“The teams are very good, they have very good players and have very good coaches. So even the fact we play Stoke, or Newcastle play Brentford, does not give us easier matches than the others.”
“It is a difficult competition to win. We need to win three matches. But going in the direction from what we are saying from the beginning of the season, the next match is a match we want to win, And the next match is Stoke.”
On importance of beating Stoke having not won in three in the league
“It has nothing to do with the match we lost or the match we have to play against Wolves next weekend. It is isolated.”
“It is a cup game. It is a game to go to the semi-finals or watch the semi-finals on TV. We have to go with a positive attitude and try to win.”
FORM:
Stoke City EFL Cup form: WWWW
Stoke City form (all competitions): WWLDDW
Tottenham Hotspur EFL Cup form: W
Tottenham Hotspur form (all competitions): DWWDLL
LINEUPS:
Stoke City possible starting lineup:
Bursik; Collins, Chester, Souttar, Fox; Cousins, Mikel; Brown, Powell, McClean; Vokes
Tottenham Hotspur possible starting lineup:
Hart; Doherty, Sanchez, Rodon, Davies; Winks, Hojbjerg; Bale, Alli, Lucas; Vinicius
SPORTSMOLE PREDICTION:
Stoke City 0-2 Tottenham Hotspur
Stoke are really struggling for goals at the moment and, while their defensive record commands respect, they do not often come up against an attack with the quality of Tottenham’s – even accounting for the changes likely to be made by Mourinho.
Spurs have suffered a dip in form at a really bad time, but we can see them getting back to winning ways and progressing to the semi-finals here.
Time to take a look at our Stoke vs Tottenham live match stream as it happens…
You must be logged in to post a comment Login