Newcastle United entertain Tottenham Hotspur in the Carabao Cup this evening.
Thomas Frank believes the Carabao Cup semi-final should be revamped to a single-legged tie.
Newcastle United welcome Tottenham Hotspur to St James' Park in the fourth round tonight. The Magpies are the competition’s holders and beat Frank - then manager of Brentford - on their way to silverware last season.
That triumph came in the quarter-final and set up a double-header against Arsenal. A unique format sees the Carabao Cup introduce a two-legged, home-and-away tie in the semi-final stage, with Newcastle beating the Gunners 2-0 in both fixtures to book a spot at Wembley.
Thomas Frank calls for change
Ahead of tonight’s clash, Spurs boss Frank has called for the semi-final to become a one-legged affair. He is adamant the tweak would benefit the “smaller clubs" and stop the “same teams winning” - despite Newcastle getting over the line last year. The Dane told reporters: “There should only be one semi-final. I said that before at Brentford and that's why I'm very happy to say it again. For the smaller clubs, if you want to beat a bigger club, it's much easier to play only one game.
“So if we really want someone to break out and it's not the same boring teams that are winning - of course except for Spurs - then we need to skip one semi-final. For everyone else that plays so many games, it should only be one.
“So if it's about money then someone needs to fix it. If it's the Premier League playing money to the EFL, because as far as I understand it's because of that, so someone fix it. It should be very easy."
Eddie Howe values Carabao Cup
On the cup’s importance, Eddie Howe said yesterday: "We've had a lot of great experiences in this competition - the first final, the emotions after the game, feeling we could have done more on the pitch.
"The Chelsea defeat (in 2023-24) is still very painful - we had a chance to win the competition that year - but we put it right. We had a lot of tough opponents - we didn’t get to the final by luck. That experience, winning the cup, has helped us grow as a team."
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Bruno Guimaraes on Carabao Cup
Speaking ahead of the game, Toon skipper Guimaraes opened up about his goal of winning the cup again. He said: “It means a lot. We want to keep making history. We went 70 years without a win, but we can make it two in two.
“It's a big possibility, a big opportunity, so we don't want to miss it. It’s going to be a big game for us and we hope we're going to be ready to take advantage in the game. It’s a big moment, and even more because we won last season. We want to do it again, keep making history, against a great and very focused team.”
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