cup tie 
noun British
A match in a competition for which the prize is a cup.‘You run risks if you miss chances in a cup tie,’ he said, ‘and that was us today.’...
- I think we treated the game as a cup tie and applied pressure early on, which we used to do every week at home.
- This was a cracking match more akin to a cup tie than a league match, both sides at the wrong end of the division and desperate to try pull them selves up the table, but both more than capable of playing some quality football.