Antonio Conte will have to overcome former club Chelsea to reach the League Cup final early in his Tottenham career, and he wants to do it in one match.
The semifinals, beginning in two weeks, are still due to be over two legs despite the upsurge in coronavirus cases wiping out games and creating a fixture pile-up.
Tottenham overcame West Ham 2-1 and Chelsea beat Brentford 2-0 on Wednesday before being paired together in the last four that will see Arsenal also play Liverpool.
“If I have to decide maybe it would be to play one game and not two games, especially I repeat for the situation we are living but we have to respect the rules,” Conte said. “For sure it will be nice and good to play against Chelsea for me. I spent two amazing seasons with Chelsea (2016-18) and I enjoyed a lot and everything there, but now I am the manager of Tottenham and I am ready to give everything for this club.”
Jürgen Klopp would gladly give up home advantage to also see Liverpool not have to play two games for the semifinals in the first two weeks of 2022 given the lack of winter break and packed festive program stretching the squad.
Liverpool was taken to penalties by Leicester in Wednesday’s other quarterfinal, prevailing 5-4 in the shootout after the game ended 3-3 after 90 minutes.
“The draw has us at Arsenal, I’m fine with that, we play there and see who is better and go for it,” Klopp said. “I don’t just speak about player welfare this year, I have been speaking about it for six years or maybe longer.