Preview: Tottenham v Brentford

Tuesday night is set to be an important occasion for both teams aiming to reach the League Cup Final to face one of the Manchester clubs.

Jose Mourinho will want to end Tottenham’s trophy drought and cement his importance to the club by guiding them to their first trophy since 2008.

For Brentford, the game is their first major cup semi-final, as they have never made it to the final four of the FA Cup or League Cup in their history, so Tuesday night is an historic night.

Tottenham were given a walkover against Leyton Orient who were unable to play due to their squad being affected by coronavirus. They beat Chelsea on penalties and won 3-1 against Stoke on their way to the semi-final.

Brentford beat Wycombe on penalties. They won 2-0 against Southampton and then won on penalties once more against West Brom. They went on to win against Fulham 3-0 and won 1-0 against Newcastle in the previous round.

Tottenham will be without Gareth Bale and Giovanni Lo Celso through injury. Matt Doherty was sent off against Leeds at the weekend so will miss the game, while Erik Lamela is unavailable according to Mourinho. Steven Bergwijn is a doubt with a slight groin injury.

Brentford could field the same team that beat Bournemouth last Wednesday. Mads Roerslev and Shandon Baptiste are both out injured and are unavailable.

The last meeting between the two sides was a second leg League Cup meeting in 2000, which saw Tottenham win 2-0.

Tottenham will go into the match as favourites and will be determined to win a trophy and the League Cup represents a good opportunity to do that. The likes of Harry Kane and Son Heung-min will be important to Spurs and they will want to show their quality by guiding their team to a final.

Brentford will be determined though and possess quality of their own with Championship joint-top scorer Ivan Toney. Bryan Mbeumo is also an impressive player. Brentford will offer a goal threat and will be hungry to reach their club’s first major cup final.