Colchester United face Brentford at Colchester Community Stadium in the second round of 2024-25 Carabao Cup.
Victory would see Colchester reach the third round for the first time since their run to the Quarter-Finals in 2019-20 season.
Thomas Frank’s Bees will look to reach the third round for a fifth consecutive season.
Team News
Ben Goodliffe is a doubt for Colchester after he missed their last three matches due to injury.
Brentford manager, Thomas Frank has confirmed that summer signings, Sepp van den Berg and Fabio Carvalho will start this game.
Yunus Emre Konak and Ji-soo Kim will also be involved.
Aaron Hickey (hamstring), Josh Dasilva, Rico Henry and Igor Thiago (all knee) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Colchester host Brentford at Colchester Community Stadium on Wednesday 28 August at 7:45pm BST, live on Sky Sports + in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Colchester have won one of four previous League Cup meetings against Brentford (W1, L3).
- Brentford have won two of three previous League Cup trips to Colchester (W2, L1).
- All four previous League Cup meetings between Colchester and Brentford have been settled by a two-goal margin.
- Colchester have won one of four home ties against Premier League opposition in this competition this century (W1, D1, L2).
- Since their promotion to the Premier League in 2021, Brentford have avoided defeat in three away ties to EFL opposition excluding penalty shootouts (W2, D1).
Prediction
Although their record in this competition is pretty poor this century, Colchester can’t write this game off because they just need to look at Newport and Gillingham to know that Brentford are beatable.
Thomas Frank’s Bees though will be much-changed from the team which were wasteful at Liverpool in the top-flight, but I do expect the fringe players to step up and show what they can do.
As for the result, I just can’t see Brentford losing this because they have stronger depth and quality unlike Colchester, who will surely view League Two as the bigger priority following a tricky start to the season.
Prediction: Colchester 0-2 Brentford
Result: Colchester 0-1 Brentford