Football
ESPN 5y

Tottenham, Manchester City facing fixture pile-up in Carabao Cup

Tottenham and Manchester City could face playing four games in eight or nine days respectively after both progressed to round four of the Carabao Cup, which will be played on Oct. 30-31.

Ongoing work at Spurs' new stadium and the unavailability of Wembley on the weekend of Oct. 27-28 means they will now play each other in the Premier League on Monday, Oct. 29.

Tottenham would not be able to move their Premier League game with Wolves the following Saturday as they are in Champions League action against PSV Eindhoven the Tuesday afterwards. Though City do not play Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League until the Wednesday, they will not want to move their match against Southampton from Saturday.

There will be no other available midweek days to play the fixture before the quarterfinals of the Carabao Cup on Dec. 17, with Champions League matchdays, the international break and a round of Premier League fixtures taking up every slot.

It means Tottenham and City both face the prospect of playing twice in 48 hours, on the Monday and the Wednesday, with no viable alternative. Even if the clubs were to play their round four games on the date for the quarterfinals, there would them be no free date to play a quarterfinal before the semifinals are due to be held.

Spurs have been drawn away to West Ham while City host Fulham, and they are not the only teams to have been affected by the Carabao Cup schedule.

Everton and Southampton's round three tie will be played on Tuesday, a week after every other tie was played, due to scheduling conflicts with Liverpool, but this would not have been possible if both teams had qualified for Europe this season.

Barnsley and Derby County had a similar situation last season, with the sides playing their round two match in place of midweek Championship fixtures, as Derby had to replay their first round tie after it was abandoned.

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