Aston Villa face-off against Colchester United in Thursday evening’s first-round draw in the Carabao Cup. The League Two side could face the claret and blues in the new ABBA penalty format should the match be tied after extra time.
The EFL Cup has so many names that it can almost be forgiven if someone forgets the current iteration of the tournament. The new name, The Carabao Cup, named after the Thai energy drink, commenced Tuesday evening.
Scores can be found here. Only one Championship club was bounced from the first-round. That would be the unfortunate souls over at Preston North End – who had an impressive league victory over the weekend.
Blues dispatched Crawley Town 5-1 after a hit-trick from midfielder Che Adams. Nathan Baker scored for Bristol, but was injured (of course) in a convincing 5-0 victory over Plymouth Argyle.
Moreover, Aaron Tshibola played the entire 120 minutes in MK Dons’ 1-0 AET defeat of Forest Green Rovers. Elsewhere, Scunthorpe advanced on penalties over Notts County in the day’s only match going to penalties. Of note, the match became the second ever to utilize a new ABBA penalty format.
The first being last Sunday’s 2017 Community Shield. Arsenal defeated Chelsea for the first piece of silverware.
Aston Villa could see ABBA penalties on Wednesday, too. Should the match be tied after regulation, and the ensuing extra time, the match will go to penalties.
What’s different? Well, the order of clubs shooting changes after each round.
An example:
R1: A: Scott Hogan B: Colchester Player
R2: B: Colchester Player A: Albert Adomah
R3: A: Henri Lansbury B: Colchester Player
R4: B: Colchester United A: Conor Hourihane
R5: A: James Chester B: Colchester United
As you can see, it will take a few times to getting use to. Steve Bruce and his Villa squad need to determine potential spot-kick takers should the match advance into extra time.
Hopefully, though, we do not see ABBA penalties until a few rounds later. Should Aston Villa advance on Wednesday, they will be a seeded club in Thursday’s second-round draw.
The most likely opponents include another League One/Two opponent, or a Championship club that finished in the bottom-half last year.