Anfield Road

THE dates for the semi-finals of the Carling Cup have been announced and Liverpool will play both legs of their tie with Manchester City on Wednesday nights, both with 7:45pm kick-offs.

The first leg, in Manchester, is on January 11th and will be shown live on BBC1. The second leg is a fortnight later on January 25th and will be shown live on Sky Sports.

The scheduling means Liverpool will have a clear gap either side of both fixtures and less worries about the consequences of fielding a strong side. The 48-hour gap they were given ahead of their quarter-final game with Chelsea caused anger at Anfield and although Liverpool ran out 2-0 winners they lost Lucas before the end of the game with an injury that has ruled him out for the rest of the season.

Eight days before that first leg Liverpool and Manchester City will meet in the league fixture at The Etihad, a game to be shown live on Sky Sports at 8pm on Tuesday 3rd. Sandwiched in between the two visits to what used to be called the City of Manchester Stadium is the FA Cup third round – the draw for which takes place this weekend – which will be played on either Saturday the 7th or Sunday the 8th.

If Liverpool progress to the 4th round they’ll play eight games in January in all – or nine if the 3rd round goes to a replay. That possible 4th round will be played on the weekend of Saturday the 28th, a few days after the second leg of the Carling Cup tie.

In between all this football will be the circus of the January transfer window, which ends the same day Liverpool play Wolves, away, on Tuesday January 31st.

LFC Fixtures for January 2012

Tue 3 – Premier League – Man City A 20:00 (Live on Sky)
Sat 7 – FA Cup R3 – TBC
Wed 11 – Carling Cup SF1 – Man City A 19:45 (Live on BBC1)
Sat 14 – Premier League – Stoke H 15:00 (Not on UK TV)
Sat 21 – Premier League – Bolton A 17:30 (Live on ESPN)
Wed 25 – Carling Cup SF2 – Man City H 19:45 (Live on Sky)
Sat 28 – FA Cup R4 – Possible, TBC
Tue 31 – Premier League – Wolves A 20:00 (Not on UK TV)