This season’s Carabao Cup kicks off at Fratton Park as Portsmouth meet Birmingham City in the opening game of the first round.
Portsmouth might still be in League One but have form for troubling Championship teams, having knocked Norwich out in the FA Cup Third Round last season before losing in the next round away at QPR in a replay.
2011 winners, Birmingham City meanwhile come into this game off the back of victory over Brentford on Saturday, which saw Pep Clotet take his first competitive game as manager.
Team news
Portsmouth will be without loanee, Ross McCrorie after the youngster was sent off at Shrewsbury on Saturday.
James Bolton (ankle), Ryan Williams (quad) and Bryn Morris (hip) are also absent but Norwich loanee, Sean Raggett is in contention to start.
Birmingham City are set to be without Jacques Maghoma (calf) and Kerim Mrabti (hamstring), whilst Jonathan Grounds and Cheick Keita are also absent with the same respective issues.
Stat Attack
- This is the first League Cup meeting between these teams.
- Portsmouth have lost three of their last five meetings with Birmingham City in all competitions, although they won their only Cup meeting in that period – 2-0 in March 2010 in that season’s FA Cup Quarter Final.
- At home, Portsmouth have suffered just one defeat in their last ten across all competitions against Birmingham City (W4, D5, L1).
- Portsmouth have exited at this stage in each of the last three seasons since losing 2-1 to Reading in August 2015 in the Second Round.
- Birmingham have been knocked out of this competition at this stage in two of the last three seasons, with the exemption being in 2017-18 when they lost in the Second Round to Bournemouth.
Prediction
Given that both clubs enjoyed contrasting 1-0 results at the weekend, I can see a good game here between two strong teams who do have a poor record in this competition.
Portsmouth however has the better record in this fixture at Fratton Park so I am going for a cupset here, but only if they field a stronger team than Birmingham.
Prediction: Portsmouth 2-1 Birmingham City
Result: Portsmouth 3-0 Birmingham City