It's all square in the Midlands as Leicester City travel to Aston Villa on Tuesday night, sitting on a 1-1 draw from the first leg, with both sides still in with a real chance of reaching the 2019/20 Carabao Cup Final at Wembley. You can take advantage of Betway's BetYourWay special for the game here where you'll get a £5 free bet when you place a £5 BetYourWay bet on the game.
Aston Villa took the lead in the first leg thanks to a goal from Frédéric Guilbert and were pegged back for the majority of the game having only 30% of the possession in the 90 minutes. But thanks to a mistake from Douglas Luiz, Kelechi Iheanacho was able to capitalize and level for Leicester going into the second leg of the tie. Brendan Rodgers' side are the favourites to qualify for the final according to Betway, who have them at 9/20 with Aston Villa following them at 17/10.
It's safe to say that Brendan Rodgers has transformed Leicester into a real Premier League "Big Six" challenger, they're having a phenomenal season and look set to even get a Champions league spot. After a small blip in form that saw them lose back-to-back games against Southampton and Burnley they got back to winning ways with a convincing 4-1 win over West Ham followed by a 1-0 win at Brentford in the FA Cup. A League Cup final would be the cherry on the top of the cake and Leicester, who are unbeaten against the Villians in their previous four meetings, will certainly be aiming to go the whole way.
Aston Villa on the other hand have been having a far from ideal first season back in the top flight, after spending over £100m in the summer transfer window they find themselves sixteenth in the table and in a relegation battle. A much needed win against Watford last week ended a run of four games without a win including an FA Cup defeat to Championship side Fulham. A packed Villa Park under the lights on a Tuesday night can certainly be the difference that Dean Smith will want to use in their pursuit to get to a first league cup final since 2010, where they lost 2-1 to other semi-finalists Man United.
Team News
Goalkeepers Tom Heaton and Jed Steer remain sidelined for the Villains, meaning that goalkeeping veteran Pepe Reina will most likely make his first Carabao Cup start since the 2012 final, in which Liverpool beat Cardiff 5-4 on penalties.
John McGinn and Wesley also remain out thanks to an ankle injury and a cruciate ligament rupture respectively while Jonathan Kodija has recently joined Qatari side Al-Gharafa. Aston Villa could be giving a debut to new signing Mbwana Samatta, a Tanzania striker who joined the club from Genk for £10m last week.
Leicester are still without Polish attacking midfielder Bartosz Kapustka, who is currently recovering from a cruciate ligament rupture and is expected to be out until March.
Jamie Vardy was substituted before half-time in last week's 4-1 win over West Ham with what looked to be a hamstring injury however Brendan Rodgers has confirmed that is not that case and in fact the injury is "not too serious", meaning that the Englishman could indeed still have a major say in this tie.
Ones to Watch
Dean Smith has confirmed that he is hopeful that new signing Mbwana Samatta will be eligible to face Leicester and that his visa should go through with no problems. The Tanzanian striker scored 75 goals in 191 appearances for the Belgian side across all competitions and even won the Ebony Shoe award last season, given to the best African or African origin player in the Belgian Pro League. In fact at an international level Samatta has netted 20 goals in his 56 appearances for the Tanzania national team, just five goals shy of the country's all time top scorer Mrisho Ngasa (25).
Aston Villa will be sick of the sight of Kelechi Iheanacho, the Nigerian International has scored five goals in five games across all competitions against the Villains, including an FA Cup hat-trick against them in 2016. Indeed Iheanacho has been in fine scoring form for Leicester and has been reborn under Brendan Rogers netting seven goals already this season, just one less than his best-ever tally for the Foxes in a single season. Iheanacho is no stranger to a League Cup Final either, having won the competition with Man City in 2015/16.
Mbwana Samatta and Kelechi Iheanacho are at 12/5 and 7/8 to score anytime in this fixture with Betway. A reminder that you can take advantage of Betway's BetYourWay special for the game here where you'll get a £5 free bet when you place a £5 BetYourWay bet on the game.
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