GOAL! Harrogate 0-2 Blackburn (Gallagher 13). Sam Gallagher, from pretty much exactly the same spot in the Harrogate box, opens his body and calmly slots into the bottom-right corner. Harrogate up against it already.
GOAL! Harrogate 0-1 Blackburn (Garrett 10). A bit of space for Jake Garrett down the inside-left channel, just inside the box. He swivels and fires a low drive across the keeper and into the bottom right.
Anyway, the big news so far this evening is that Stuart Broad is covering the Forest game for Sky Sports in their Soccer Special studio. He’s well-informed, witty, erudite and charming, pretty much as you’d expect. Get him signed up. All of which is a long-winded way of saying there’s nothing much going on in the early kick-offs yet.
As for the Champions League … PSV-Rangers can go to extra time if the aggregate score is still level after the end of tonight’s second leg. Penalties afterwards if required. Big week coming up for Michael Beale, who could be in a world of pain should tonight’s match and this weekend’s Old Firm derby go the wrong way for his new-look team.
A reminder that tonight’s games in the Carabao Cup will go straight to penalties if there’s no winner after the regulation 90 minutes. No extra time. The draw for the third round will take place at 10.15pm, unless the Doncaster-Everton game runs over, in which case we’ll have to hang around a bit.
The 7.45pms kick off … and it’s not long before the matches in Doncaster and Eindhoven get going as well. Goals to follow!
While we wait for the action to begin, let’s have a rummage around the Joy of Six archive for some League Cup nostalgia. Here, this’ll do! It was written 11 years ago, but there haven’t been any shocks in the final since then, so the main thrust still stands. (Cardiff, Sunderland and Southampton tried their hardest, to be fair.)
Carabao Cup teams
Chelsea: Sanchez, Disasi, Colwill, Humphreys, Maatsen, Ugochukwu, Gallagher, Cucurella, Madueke, Moreira, Burstow.
Subs: Petrovic, Thiago Silva, Fernandez, Jackson, Chilwell, Caicedo, Gusto, Bergstrom, Samuels-Smith.
AFC Wimbledon: Bass, Ogundere, Johnson, Lewis, Pearce, Tilley, Williams, Pell, Ball, Neufville, Davison.
Subs: Tzanev, Brown, Al-Hamadi, Bugiel, Lock, Sutcliffe, Sasu, Jennings.
Doncaster Rovers: Lawlor, Senior, Westbrooke, Olowu, Maxwell, Broadbent, Rowe, Bailey, Molyneux, Ironside, Faal.
Subs: Wood, Jones, Long, Sotona, Roberts, Faulkner, Goodman, Straughan Brown, Kuleya.
Everton: Pickford, Patterson, Keane, Godfrey, Mykolenko, Garner, Doucoure, Onana, Dobbin, Chermiti, Danjuma.
Subs: Beto, Tarkowski, Virginia, Maupay, Young, Gueye, Lonergan, Branthwaite, Onyango.
Harrogate Town: Oxley, Ramsay, Burrell, Smith, Gibson, Horbury, Sutton, Thomson, Matty Daly, Odoh, Muldoon.
Subs: James Daly, Folarin, Thomas, O’Connor, McDonald, Foulds, Armstrong, O’Boyle.
Blackburn Rovers: Wahlstedt, Gamble, Scott Wharton, Hyam, Pickering, Garrett, Tronstad, Markanday, Moran, Buckley, Gallagher.
Subs: Brittain, Szmodics, Carter, Gilsenan, Hilton, Edmondson, Bloxham, Doherty, Atcheson.
Nottingham Forest: Turner, Boly, Niakhate, Kouyate, Aurier, Yates, Santos, Montiel, Williams, Elanga, Wood.
Subs: Awoniyi, Gibbs-White, Toffolo, Felipe, Johnson, Horvath, Hwang, Aina, Aguilera.
Burnley: Muric, Vitinho, Ekdal, O’Shea, Taylor, Bruun Larsen, Brownhill, Ramsey, Redmond, Gudmundsson, Rodriguez.
Subs: Trafford, Cork, Benson, Berge, Foster, Cullen, Amdouni, Al Dakhil, Odobert.
Sheffield United: Adam Davies, Basham, Egan, Trusty, Bogle, Coulibaly, Norwood, Brooks, Larouci, Archer, McBurnie.
Subs: Traore, Ahmedhodzic, Foderingham, Ben Slimane, Osula, Marsh, Seriki, Buyabu.
Lincoln City: Jensen, Eyoma, Mitchell, Roughan, Burroughs, Smith, Erhahon, Brown, Hackett-Fairchild, House, Mandroiu.
Subs: Sorensen, Jackson, Bishop, Hamilton, Wright, Duffy, Gallagher, Makama.
Champions League teams
PSV: Benitez, Dest, Teze, Boscagli, Saibari, Veerman, Sangare, Schouten, Lang, de Jong, Bakayoko.
Subs: Sambo, Ramalho, Tillman, Pepi, Drommel, Til, El Ghazi, Waterman, Babadi, van Aanholt, Vertessen.
Rangers: Butland, Tavernier, Goldson, Souttar, Barisic, Lundstram, Cifuentes, Raskin, Cantwell, Matondo, Dessers.
Subs: Jack, Lammers, Sima, Sterling, Scott Wright, Davies, Balogun, McCrorie, Kieran Wright, King, Devine, Danilo.
Preamble
Supporters of Leeds United and Tottenham Hotspur will understandably demur, but last night’s second-round action in the Carabao Cup was a whole lot of fun. Goals, goals, goals. More please! Admittedly it’s a more select card tonight …
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Chelsea v AFC Wimbledon
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Doncaster Rovers v Everton
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Harrogate Town v Blackburn Rovers
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Nottingham Forest v Burnley
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Sheffield United v Lincoln City
… but a good one nonetheless. Also there’s the bonus of Champions League qualifying action in the shape of …
… so there’s plenty of CUP SOCCER to whet the appetite. Kick off is at 7.45pm BST, except in Doncaster and Eindhoven where it’ll be 8pm. It’s on!
