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Cardiff City, Crystal Palace, Liverpool and Manchester City will all battle it out this week for a place in the Carling Cup final at Wembley next month. Both ties are nicely poised at 1-0 so it’s still very much all to play for in the 2nd legs.

On Tuesday night, Cardiff City host Crystal Palace in the first semi-final. Palace have a slight advantage going into the game at the Cardiff City Stadium, having won 1-0 in the first leg at Selhurst Park. That game was somewhat controversial, with a seemingly good goal by Cardiff’s Kenny Miller being chalked off for ‘a foul’ on the goalkeeper which didn’t appear to be there.

That will no doubt increase the passions from within the Cardiff camp. There will be a huge crowd packed into the Cardiff City Stadium as the Welsh capital will be backing the Bluebirds to make the trip to the English capital for the cup final. It could be an intimidating atmosphere for what is a relatively young Palace side.

Both sides have done terrifically well to get this far and ensure that the Football League will be represented in the final. Palace, of course, knocked out Manchester United at Old Trafford in one of the earlier rounds, and possess one of the hottest talents in English football in Wilfried Zaha.

It’s going to be a close game to call. I think that with home advantage in the 2nd leg, Cardiff have enough to win the game. But will that be enough to qualify? If Palace score, then City need to score three in order to make the final, and that will be a tough ask.

Cardiff are 5/6 (Blue Sq) to win the game, with Crystal Palace 17/20 (Sportingbet) to qualify. I fancy a 2-1 Cardiff win on the night which is available at 15/2 (Bet365, betVictor, Ladbrokes).

On Wednesday evening, Manchester City travel to Anfield to face Liverpool, with the Reds in the driving seat having nicked a 1-0 victory at the City of Manchester Stadium a fortnight ago.

A Steven Gerrard penalty was enough on that occasion and they will be looking to defend that lead. However, if the defend it in the way they defeated at the Reebok Stadium at the weekend when they lost 3-1 to Bolton, they will miss out on the trip to Wembley.

Their form has not been great. The loss of Luis Suarez to a ban has been a big blow to them. Andy Carroll has been moved into the firing line and he is incredibly out of form, although in his defence, Liverpool fail to play to his strengths.

So if they are going to score and make their chances of getting through better, they will be relying on goal from other sources such as former City favourite Craig Bellamy, Argentinian Maxi Rodriguez and of course captain Gerrard again.

City have a blow of their own through a ban, with captain Vincent Kompany suspended for the infamous tackle in the Manchester derby in the FA Cup. He sits out the final game of that suspension, so that means that Montenegran Stefan Savic is likely to continue to deputise. That is certainly one area which the Reds may be able to take advantage of, as Savic has struggled to fill the Belgian’s boots and gave the penalty away in the first leg.

I expect it to be a tight and tetchy encounter with few goals. I find Manchester City trememdous value at 7/4 (Boylesports, Stan James, 888 Sport). And they are 21/10 to qualify for the final with bwin. My scoreline prediction is Manchester City to win 2-0 which can be backed at 14/1 (William Hill).

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