West Ham United star Declan Rice is looking forward to Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup quarter-final against Tottenham as it is a “big game”.
The Hammers beat Man United and Man City to reach the quarter-finals of the competition.
Manuel Lanzini scored as they defeated United 1-0. They then beat City 5-3 on penalties to knock the holders out of the Carabao Cup.
Ranking the last eight on how badly they should want to win the Carabao…
The first quarter-final took place on Tuesday evening. Arsenal bested League One side Sunderland to advance.
Liverpool vs Leicester City and Brentford vs Chelsea also take place in midweek in the other quarter-final ties.
The Hammers have not won a trophy since 1980. That year they lifted the FA Cup as they beat Arsenal 1-0 in the final.
Rice has insisted that the game against Tottenham is “massive” for West Ham:
“It’s obviously a big game for everyone, it’s Spurs away, it’s a chance to get into a semi-final, so it’s massive for us and something we’ve been trying to build towards and get to for the last couple of years, but we haven’t quite done it,” Rice told West Ham’s official website.
“Wednesday is a massive chance for us to do it and if I get the chance to play, I’ll be ready and buzzing to be involved.
“We don’t want to concede early like we did then (in October 2020, when West Ham went three goals down inside 16 minutes before mounting an historic late comeback capped by Manuel Lanzini’s added-time equaliser), as then it’s a lot harder to come back. That was a freak game, so hopefully this time we can get in front and maintain our lead.”
Spurs are now managed by Antonio Conte. Rice went onto acknowledge that they have “upped their levels” since he has come in:
“Every time a new manager comes in, players up their levels again. I watched their game on Sunday against Liverpool and they looked good, but we caused them problems at home [in the Premier League and that’s what we’ll look to do again.
“I always like playing at Spurs’ stadium, so hopefully we can get another good result there.”
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