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MATCH PREVIEW ~ Fulham visit Birmingham City ~ League Cup RND 02 ~ 24/25

Match Preview Birmingham City v Fulham League Cup Round 02 24/25 at St. Andrew's Stadium Tuesday 27th August 2024    KO: 20:00 Referee: Keith Stroud (Hampshire) Live on Sky Sports

Fulham manager Marco Silva Other Marco Silva Stories His Wiki page Birmingham City manager Chris Davies His Wiki page Bidding to at least replicate last year's memorable run to the EFL Cup semi-finals, Fulham's latest knockout adventure begins with a second-round trip to Birmingham City on Tuesday. Meanwhile, their League One hosts have already had to navigate their way past Charlton Athletic to set up a tie with Premier League opposition, as both endeavour to build on weekend wins. Two goals that were made in Arsenal's Hale End academy, Fulham got off the Premier League mark for 2024-25 at the second time of asking on a wet and windy Saturday afternoon, where they survived a brief scare to send Leicester City packing. After succumbing to a narrow loss to Manchester United in the season's inaugural match, Emile Smith Rowe's account-opener and Alex Iwobi's second either side of a Wout Faes header ensured that Fulham posted the points that their overall dominance warranted. Sinking Steve Cooper's side saw Fulham snap a dismal five-game winless sequence in Premier League football, a chain of results that prevented them from escaping the obscurity of mid-table last season, although they could pat themselves on the back as far as the EFL Cup was concerned. Indeed, Fulham - who are still searching for their maiden major honour excluding Championship and League One titles - progressed to the League Cup semis for the very first time in 2023-24 and put in a good shift over the 180 minutes against Liverpool, only to fall to a 3-2 aggregate loss. As well as a potential assault on the European places in the Premier League, an inaugural piece of silverware is long overdue at Craven Cottage, but Birmingham already know what it takes to conquer the EFL Cup. No fewer than 13 years have passed since Laurent Koscielny and Wojciech Szczesny's mix-up in the 2011 League Cup final, where Obafemi Martins pounced before whipping out his trademark acrobatic celebration as Birmingham pulled off a mighty Arsenal upset. Two-time winners of the EFL Cup - also defeating local foes Aston Villa in a two-legged final in 1963 - Birmingham's more recent history in the competition has been much more modest; they have not been past the second round since coincidentally losing to Villa in the 2015-16 third round. However, with former Tottenham Hotspur coach Chris Davies at the helm, the hosts have kicked off their quest for immediate promotion in near-faultless fashion, taking seven points from a possible nine against Reading, Wycombe Wanderers and Leyton Orient in League One. Blues also overcame fellow third-tier side Charlton in the first round of the EFL Cup, but not without a couple of huge scares, having seen Ryan Allsop save a Tyreece Campbell penalty before Dion Sanderson's late red card for two bookable offences. Nevertheless, Davies's 10 men dug deep at The Valley to earn a second-round date with Fulham, whom they have not squared up to since a chastening 6-2 Championship defeat in January 2022, which marked the Cottagers' fifth straight triumph in this fixture.

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Source Ben Knapton

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