Ciaran Kelly
BBC Sport reporter at St James' Park

Image source, Getty Images

There is a huge prize on offer at a soggy St James’ Park tonight: a place in the Carabao Cup semi-finals.

But it understandably feels a little flat around the city following Newcastle United's damaging 1-0 defeat against bitter rivals Sunderland on Sunday.

A number of Newcastle players have appeared to belatedly recognise that they will be unable to truly make up for the limp manner of the derby loss until the return fixture in March.

But this side have to start consistently firing long before then or their season will be as good as over.

So will Sunderland prove a line in the sand moment?

Eddie Howe certainly needs it to be after his cautious tactics came under fire at the Stadium of Light and the Newcastle head coach publicly questioned the mentality of his own players a couple of days later.

It does not feel like the worst time for Fulham to rock up to St James’ and face the holders as manager Marco Silva bids to reach a second semi-final in just three seasons.

Newcastle only defeated Fulham courtesy of a 90th-minute winner from captain Bruno Guimaraes when the sides met here in the league back in October.

So it’s all set up to be a gripping night.

Some of you are perhaps wondering why we haven't got another Carabao Cup quarter-final game on this week.

Chelsea booked their place last night and two more will join them this evening.

That leaves one more spot up for grabs and Arsenal will host Crystal Palace next week to decide who gets it.

The match was initially set to take place this week, but Palace's involvement in the Conference League meant they would have had to play three games in five days.

So, that on takes place on Tuesday, 23 December instead.

The draw for the semi-finals will take place straight after this evening's action.

The first legs of the last four ties are scheduled to take place the week commencing 12 January 2026.

Shamoon Hafez
Football news reporter at Etihad Stadium

Manchester City make seven changes to the side that beat Crystal Palace on Sunday.

James Trafford starts in goal, with Rico Lewis, Abdukodir Khusanov, Nathan Ake, Oscar Bobb and Savinho coming into the side.

Academy star Divine Mukasa starts up front in place of Erling Haaland.

Gianluigi Donnarumma, Matheus Nunes, Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden all drop out.

Man City XI: Trafford, Lewis, Khusanov, Ake, O’Reilly, Gonzalez, Reijnders, Bobb, Cherki, Savinho, Mukasa.

Brentford make six changes following the weekend's draw at Leeds.

Hakon Valdimarsson starts in goal in place of Caoimhin Kelleher, while Rico Henry, Kristoffer Ajer, Mikkel Damsgaard, Yehor Yarmolyuk and Kevin Schade come into the side.

Aaron Hickey, Jordan Henderson, Dango Ouattara, Keane Lewis-Potter and Igor Thiago drop out.

Brentford XI: Valdimarsson, Kayode, Van den Berg, Ajer, Collins, Henry, Jensen, Damsgaard, Yarmoliuk, Janelt, Schade.

So, Chelsea beat Cardiff City 3-1 last night to progress to the last four of the Carabao Cup. Two more teams will book their place this evening. Plus, we'll find out who will be facing who in the semis with the draw following tonight's action.

• Manchester City v Brentford (19:30 GMT)
• Newcastle United v Fulham (20:15 GMT)

Chelsea became the first team to book their place in the semi-finals of the League Cup last night.

Who will be joining them?

Image source, Getty Images