Nottingham Forest welcome Manchester United to the City Ground for the first time in 24 years as the two teams meet in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-finals.
This is Forest's first appearance in the last four of the League Cup (or either major domestic cup, for that matter) since 1992 – when they reached the final, only to lose to... Man United. Steve Cooper's side have been in decent nick since the World Cup, and the underdogs will be hoping that a raucous home crowd can help them take control of this tie.
For United, meanwhile, it's a third Carabao Cup semi-final in four seasons – although they have fallen at this hurdle on each of the last two occasions (both times to Manchester City). The visitors suffered their first defeat since the World Cup in losing late on at Arsenal last time out, and Erik ten Hag will expect a reaction as he looks to steer United closer to a first final in any competition since the 2018 FA Cup final.
Kick-off is at 8pm GMT.
Team news
Forest will be without six players for one of the biggest matches in their recent history. Omar Richards, Moussa Niakhate, Cheikhou Kouyate and Taiwo Awoniyi are all sidelined, along Giulian Biancone – who's been ruled out for the season. Dean Henderson wouldn't have been eligible to play against his parent club but is injured anyway.
As for United, in addition to Donny van de Beek – who's out for the season – this game comes too soon for Diogo Dalot to return, while Jadon Sancho and Anthony Martial remain doubtful.
Form
After a poor start to their first season back in the top flight, Forest – who drew 1-1 away to Bournemouth in the league on Saturday – have lost only two of their last 11 games in all competitions: 4-1 at Championship Blackpool in the FA Cup with a heavily rotated side – and 3-0 at United in the Premier League. They'll be hoping to avoid a repeat of the latter – and United's last visit to the City Ground in 1999, when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored a hat-trick off the bench in an 8-1 rout.
Meanwhile, United are looking to avoid going three matches without a win for the first time under Ten Hag. In fact, Sunday's 3-2 loss at Arsenal means they've gone two without a win for the first time since the Dutchman's opening couple of games in charge – having drawn 1-1 away to Crystal Palace last Wednesday. Prior to that, they'd won nine in a row in all competitions.
Referee
Michael Oliver will be the referee for Nottingham Forest vs Manchester United.
Stadium
Nottingham Forest vs Manchester United will be played at the 30,445-capacity City Ground in Nottingham.
In the US, kick-off time is 3pm ET / 12pm PT. The match will be shown on ESPN in the US. See below for international broadcast options.
VPN guide
Use a VPN to watch Carabao Cup football from outside your country
If you’re out of the country for any Carabao Cup action, then annoyingly your domestic on-demand services won’t work – the broadcaster knows where you are because of your IP address (boo!). You'll be blocked from watching it, which is not ideal if you’ve paid up for a subscription and still want to catch the action without resorting to illegal feeds you’ve found on Reddit.
But assistance is on hand. To get around that, all you have to do is get a Virtual Private Network (VPN), assuming it complies with your broadcaster’s T&Cs. A VPN creates a private connection between your device and t'internet, meaning the service can’t work out where you are and won't automatically block the service you've paid for. All the info going between is entirely encrypted – and that's a result.
There are plenty of good-value options out there, and FourFourTwo currently recommends:
ExpressVPN including a 30-day, money-back guarantee
FourFourTwo’s brainy office mates TechRadar love its super speedy connections, trustworthy security and the fact it works with Android, Apple, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, PS5 and loads more. You also get a money-back guarantee, 24/7 support and it's currently available for a knockdown price. Go get it!
(Image credit: Future)
International Carabao Cup TV rights
• UK: Sky Sports are the Carabao Cup rights holders in the United Kingdom.
• USA: ESPN broadcasts the Carabao Cup in the United States. You can get an ESPN+ subscription for $9.99 per month, or save over 15% with an ESPN+ Annual Plan at $99.99 per year
• Canada: The way to watch Carabao Cup football in 2022/23 is DAZN, where a monthly subscription costs $24.99.
• Australia and New Zealand: beIN Sports shows the Carabao Cup in both Australia and New Zealand. Sign up in Australia for $19.99 a month, and in New Zealand for $31.99 a month.
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Tom Hancock started freelancing for FourFourTwo in April 2019 and has also written for the Premier League and Opta Analyst, among others. He supports Wycombe Wanderers and has a soft spot for Wealdstone. A self-confessed statto, he has been known to watch football with a spreadsheet (or several) open...
