Michael Laudrup says Swansea City supporters can dream of a trip to Wembley but he won\u2019t let cup success affect their Premier League campaign.<\/p>\n
Swansea progressed to the quarter-finals of the league cup for the first time in their history after beating Liverpool\u00a0but Laudrup is refusing to get carried away with the victory.<\/p>\n
A home tie with Middlesbrough in the next round\u00a0has given Swansea the chance to mount a serious challenge for the Capital One Cup this season.<\/p>\n
But with a home clash with European champions Chelsea at the Liberty Stadium tomorrow, Swans boss Laudrup has quickly turned his attention back to their league form.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was also the first time beating one of the big clubs on their own pitch so that\u2019s a great achievement as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut now we have to put that to the back of our minds until December and don\u2019t start talking about Wembley.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fans can have their dreams that it would be nice to go there, I understand that but before that we have seven league games, including some very important ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the supporters I understand this is history and it\u2019s very special. I try to understand that as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why the cup is fantastic and that\u2019s why I said before the Barnsley game\u00a0the cup is important because it gives you the chance to feel the success.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fans can dream about Wembley and the final, we can\u2019t. We have to focus on the league now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laudrup played a near full-strength side for Wednesday night\u2019s game with only four changes from the side who lost 1-0 at Manchester City, with two of the changes being enforced because of an injury to goalkeeper Michel Vorm and the suspension of Angel Rangel.<\/p>\n
Last season under Brendan Rodgers a much-changed Swansea side were dumped out of the league cup at Shrewsbury as they focussed on maintaining their place in the Premier League.<\/p>\n
The league remains the top priority for Swansea this season but Laudrup has always stated his desire to do well in the cup competitions.<\/p>\n
Chairman Huw Jenkins praised Laudrup and his side following their win over Liverpool and former manager Brendan Rodgers, who the Dane replaced this summer.<\/p>\n
Jenkins said: \u201cWe are taking the cup seriously. It\u2019s about keeping momentum.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe boys have started playing well and we have to make sure we keep getting results and building confidence which will help everybody.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to be in the quarter-finals for the first time, but it\u2019s great for our manager as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaking over and coming in as he did was a difficult task.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d love to have a trip to Wembley. But we can\u2019t afford to forget the most important thing which is making sure we keep winning in the Premier League.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swansea avoided top flight rivals Arsenal, Chelsea, Norwich and Aston Villa in the quarter-final draw as they secured their first home tie since the second round win over Barnsley.<\/p>\n
With Norwich and Villa meeting in the next round and Chelsea and Arsenal tasked with tricky away fixtures at Leeds United and Bradford, there\u2019s no question the draw has fallen in Swansea\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n
But Laudrup insists Middlesbrough won\u2019t be an easy tie having booked their place in the quarter-final with an impressive 1-0 win at North East rivals Sunderland on Tuesday night and Tony Mowbray\u2019s side have been in excellent form in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
Boro are unbeaten in six games in all competitions and currently sit third in the Championship behind Cardiff and Leicester.<\/p>\n
Laudrup said: \u201cIt (the league cup) is the shortest way to a final because you play only five games and you can be in the final.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe winner of league cup will be going into the Europa League so there\u2019s another bonus at the end of the competition and that\u2019s why it\u2019s very important for a club like us.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pleased we are at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last two games have been long trips away so the crowd deserve a home quarter-final.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there are lots of games before then that are very important.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seven games where we need to make sure we pick up some points because then it is only three until the halfway stage and then we can look at where we are.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that we need to have a certain number of points to make sure we don\u2019t suffer so much in the second half of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laudrup was delighted with Swansea\u2019s performance in the 3-1 win over Liverpool as they dominated Rodgers\u2019 lacklustre side.<\/p>\n
Swansea took the lead through Chico Flores in the first half and goals from Nathan Dyer and Jonathan de Guzman sealed the win in the second period.<\/p>\n
Laudrup added: \u201cThe result is always the most important thing but the performance was excellent. To go face-to-face without fear against Liverpool at Anfield is great for this club.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Michael Laudrup says Swansea City supporters can dream of a trip to Wembley but he won\u2019t let cup success affect their Premier League campaign. Swansea progressed to the quarter-finals of the league cup for the first time in their history after beating Liverpool\u00a0but Laudrup is refusing to get carried away with the victory. A home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":453,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/453"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}