Crystal Palace head to Cardiff on Tuesday looking to finish the job in the Carling Cup semi-final second leg after winning the first match between the two sides 1-0 at Selhurst Park.

The Bluebirds have a phenomenal home record and will fancy their chances of over turning Palace’s slender advantage. However, on the big occasions in the past they have choked.

Can Cardiff cope with the jitters or will Palace be making the short trip to Wembley?

Cardiff had earnt the reputation as chokers under former boss Dave Jones after a string of play-off failures, the most recent of which saw them beaten 3-0 at home by Reading in the second leg last season.

The season before that they had been beaten in the play-off final by Blackpool having looked odds on for automatic promotion before a late slump.

Despite a change in manager since those debacles the Bluebirds did seem to freeze in the first leg of the Carling Cup semi-final in south London. Anthony Gardener’s goal was enough to give Palace the win on that occasion, and while Cardiff wrongly had a goal chalked off they never looked like getting back into the game once they had fallen behind.

Ahead of the return match in Wales, Palace manager Dougie Freedman has seemingly taken great delight in pointing out Cardiff’s recent failures, predicting they will be “scared stiff” for Tuesday night’s game.

No doubt the game will come down to who copes with the pressure best, with thoughts of being 90 minutes away from Wembley likely to make a few stomachs churn before kick-off.

Malky Mackay has rubbished talk of his team getting stage fright and says Saturday’s last-gasp win over Portsmouth has filled his players with confidence ahead of the arrival of Palace.

Cardiff are a different animal at home, winning 13 out of 17 matches on their own patch this year. The Bluebirds’  home record means they are the 8/11 favourites to win the match inside 90 minutes, with Palace 4/1 and the draw 5/2.

Obviously only a win will do for Cardiff  and as such you can expect Mackay’s team to be a lot more open than they were at Selhurst Park, with the Scot likely to play two up front. The Bluebirds boss named a fairly strong team for the win over Portsmouth so expect the majority of the same eleven to start again on Tuesday.

As for Palace, it is clear that for Freedman this is potentially the biggest game they will play this season after he decided to rest ten first-team players for the trip to Blackpool. Having made a flying start to the season Palace have dropped down the Championship table a little and clearly see the Carling Cup as their main chance of success this season, rather than promotion.

Palace’s form on the road has varied from one end of the scale to the other, Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Blackpool making six losses in the last nine away from home. However, they did win the other three matches and one of those was at Manchester United in the quarter-finals.

Palace’s main strength this season has been their defence, allowing just two sides to score more than two goals in 16 games away from Selhurst Park. The Eagles’ backline is likely to be tested by Cardiff on Tuesday and while the Bluebirds can get the win they need it will probably only be good enough to force extra time.

The draw HT/Cardiff FT bet at 10/3 looks to be inviting given how the first game went, with Palace to go through to next month’s showdown at Wembley being the eventual outcome.

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