Social media went off the rails last night as Manchester City were drawn against Burton Albion in the semi-finals of the League Cup. ‘Rigged!’ the viewers cried after pundit Craig Bellamy had said that City had got the Brewers the day before the draw was made.
Obviously, the League Cup semi-final draw was not rigged and Bellamy had a one in three chance of predicting who City would get in the last four. But more likely than that, Bellamy may have got his wires crossed and presumed that the semi-final would be played between the two teams that won on Tuesday and then the two teams that won on Wednesday, as we see in competitions such as the World Cup where the draw is already laid out.
More to the point, if the draw was rigged, why on earth would Craig Bellamy be the man in the know! Surely they would want to keep that one quiet. We even saw the draw take place on TV, done by Piers Morgan and Peter Crouch, with no possibility that there was anything dodgy going on.
In fact, Piers even says on the clip that he wants his arch-rivals Tottenham to draw Man City in the semi-finals with Mauricio Pochettino watching on. Now City have the seemingly easy draw as they face League One side Burton over two legs in January. Meanwhile, Spurs’ reward for beating Arsenal 2-0 last night is a two-legged tie against Chelsea for a place in the final at Wembley.
You can see both clips down below, with Bellamy’s prediction coming true in the actual draw.
@SpursOfficial will play @ChelseaFC in the semi-finals of the @Carabao_Cup, while holders @ManCity face League One side @burtonalbionfc:
