Newcastle VS Leicester
Newcastle welcome Leicester at St. James' Park for this Carabao Cup - also known as EFL Cup - quarter-finals clash early Wednesday morning Beijing time. This competition is not the main priority for either team but especially Newcastle have not achieved too much success for a very long time and I expect both teams to be motivated as this is also the quarter-final and winning the trophy is realistic.. Both managers are expected to rotate the squad and are also likely to make some alterations to their starting lineups from the FA Cup matches. The hosts will probably restore the first-choice goalkeeper Nick Pope to the starting lineup - replacing Martin Dubravka. Unfortunately for the hosts Allan Saint-Maximin might miss this clash with an illness. Luckily the hosts have a pretty deep squad these days. They have rich owners and the club is hungry for trophies and their future looks very bright! E. Krath, J Shelvey and M. Targett are also out but this does mean that Newcastle would not be clear favorites today. They have an over 70% chance of winning during the 90 minutes of play. As for Leicester the situation is worse as they will be without R. Bertrand, J. Evans, J. Justin and R. Pereira. Furthermore, K. Dewsbury-Hall, J. Maddison, D. Praet and B. Soumare are questionable at the time of writing this very late Tuesday evening Beijing time. Newcastle are having a terrific season and currently occupy the 3rd place in the standings with 35 points to their account. This is just four points less than the best team on the planet – Manchester City, have grabbed! The hosts have a very good score difference – 32:11! Indeed, this is much better than for example Manchester United's. Their defense has been super-solid and well structured and the defenders hardly make any stupid mistakes.,
Newcastle have lost just once in this league so far this season! Moreover, the 11 goals allowed is clearly the lowest number in the Premier League! At home they have been on fire - they are undefeated in nine Premier League games at St. James' Park! The crowd is the most enthusiastic in England in my opinion and is a gigantic boost for the host and should make sure that the hosts do everything they can to win here. Already last season Newcastle were very strong at home! They were very unlucky to lose to Sheffield Wednesday last Saturday in the FA Cup. Indeed, they had 75% ball possession and recorded many more goal attempts (22-9), shots on goal, total passes, completed passes, attacks and especially dangerous attacks - 76-18. Their number of expected goals (xG) was also much higher than that of the hosts. I believe this result affects the odds too much here.. Before this they played well in London against Arsenal, who currently top the standings. Newcastle recorded 1.08 in xG – Arsenal's number was 0.89. Leicester are having another somewhat disappointing season and are in the 13th place with 17 points and a clearly negative score difference. The club is in long-term decline after being strong until the season of 2020-2021. They did beat Gillingham, a totally out-of-form team that play in League Two - the 4th tier - in their most recent game last Saturday. Leicester did not impress me in this FA cup clash priced around 1.25 to win according to the bookies. They took a crappy 1-0 win and were the better team but the hosts, quite interestingly, even recorded more dangerous attacks – 54-40. Lastly I want to mention that Newcastle easily beat Leicester when the teams last met on Boxing Day last year! Today's hosts won 3-0 away from home after a fine performance. Newcastle recorded 1.82 in xG – poor Leicester managed just 0.29!
