Tuesday evening’s match at the Stadium of Light sees Sunderland host Manchester United in the first leg of their League Cup semi-final.

The hosts go into the game just two days after booking their place in the fourth round of the FA Cup by beating Carlisle United by three goals to one on Sunday afternoon, which itself came after a run which saw them win just one of their last eight Premier League fixtures.

Manager Gus Poyet has several absentees in defence, with captain and former Manchester United centre-back John O’Shea, Valentin Roberge, Carlos Cuellar and Modibo Diakite all out.

Steven Fletcher is widely available at 9.0 (8/1) to open the scoring, while Ki Sung-Yeung, who was the hero in the quarter final win over Chelsea, is a 28.0 (27/1) shot with 888 Sport.

The home win is generously priced at 5.0 (4/1) with most firms, with the visitors priced at 1.8 (4/5) with Paddy Power, who offer 3.8 (14/5) for the draw.

David Moyes’ men were celebrating rather less on Sunday evening after crashing out of the FA Cup to Swansea City – their second straight 2-1 home defeat having lost by the same scoreline to Tottenham Hotspur in the league on New Year’s Day.

Rio Ferdinand is a doubt after limping off at the weekend, while Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie and Phil Jones are all uncertain of returns due to their respective injury woes.

Danny Welbeck is widely available at 5.5 (9/2) to get the first goal of the game ahead of 6.5 (11/2) shot Javier Hernandez.

The two sides met in the North East back in October, with United coming from behind to secure a 2-1 victory, thanks to a superb brace by Adnan Januzaj in his first start for the club.

That was the twentieth consecutive match which Sunderland failed to beat the current Premier League champions, though with United having lost four of their last ten games, things may not be so straight forward this time around.

With this in mind, you may want to back the Sunderland-Draw double chance at 2.25 (5/4) with Bet Victor.