With a trip to Wembley at stake, Crystal Palace take a slender 1-0 lead to Wales this evening for their Carling Cup semi-final second leg, against Cardiff City.

The Eagles took the honours in the first leg courtesy of Anthony Gardner's far post header two minutes before the break at Selhurst Park and will be aiming to return to Wembley for the first time in 22 years.

Palace edge the tie at the halfway point and they are likely to line-up differently to the side that suffered a 2-1 loss at the hands of Blackpool at the weekend; Freedman made nine changes to the side that had drawn with Leeds United a week earlier when they faced the Tangerines but he has a near full strength squad to choose from - only Jonny Williams remains on the sidelines - this evening.

He told the Croyden Guardian: "The bug has gone and it, it is fantastic news for us.

"I've got decisions to make with a lot of people. I've noticed a real change around the place since the Manchester United game.

"A lot of people are not only bang into what we are trying to do they are having an input in what direction the players want to go.

"We are a lot stronger physically than we were last time out against Cardiff."

The sides have already met at the Cardiff City Stadium this season, as recently as November, when the Bluebirds ran out 2-0 winners in the npower Championship, courtesy of two second half goals.

The same result tonight would suffice and ensure the Welsh side progress to face either Liverpool or Manchester City - they play their second leg on Wednesday evening - in the League Cup final for the first time in their history.

Expectations are understandably high heading into the tie, and manager Malky Mackay is confident that his side can handle the pressure.

He told www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk: "I've got players who know how the ebb and flow of a game goes. We'll be calm going out there. We'll stick to our game plan and our players will know what they've been asked to do.

"I've got confidence in my team to be able to run for 90, 95 minutes or longer, should that be the case on Tuesday night. I've got no doubt in the ability and enthusiasm of my team to play a Saturday-Tuesday game.

"This is a new group of players, but what I've got is some experienced players and people who have been in these situations before.

"We've been through the competition and played Premier League opposition. We've been to extra-time and penalties in the competition. There's a whole rollercoaster of emotions that have gone on this season and the players have handled it all very calmly."

Mackay has no fresh injury problems to worry about ahead of the match, although defender Kevin McNaughton (calf) and striker Rudy Gestede (ankle) remain doubtful.

Cardiff head into the game on the back of last gasp 3-2 win over Portsmouth in the league on Saturday and buoyed by the victory, the former Watford manager has identified that supporters could have a big role to play in the outcome of the cup match.

He added: "It's a fantastic game to be involved in and it's another game at our own stadium. We're 1-0 down at half-time so to speak and we'll have a full house rocking as it was on Saturday. I'm delighted the fans showed their passion to get behind the team on Saturday and I don't expect anything different on Tuesday night.

"It will be a fantastic occasion, but we'll play the game not the occasion. Gates of 23,000 have been fantastic this season and the crowd made a huge, huge difference on the weekend. Our supporters' can be the 12th man again on Tuesday evening."