MATCHWATCH : AFC Wimbledon (h)

[Hound]

Thinking Doyle and Fraser may have made things fairly hard for Hunt for the next league game. Some players certainly didn’t help their cause (Rushesha, Stickland, JOP, Ryan). Actually thought Camara was pretty poor except the goal as well. Kyeweraa just shouts impact sub rather than starter to me

Elliott should be first name on the sheet

Lane was taken off likely to save him for a start. Reckon we’re looking at

Abrefa/Ahmed Burns Williams Jacob
Savage Wing Elliott
Lane O Mahony Garcia

But can see Doyle or Fraser getting in somewhere

[Clyde1998]

When`s the draw for the next round, before or after tonight`s games?

After Grimsby vs Man Utd.

[Clyde1998]

One thing to note about the draw is because of the extended Champions League format, not all 3rd Round matches are played in the same week. For example if you get drawn with a Europa League team, the scheduled fixtures would be I think w/c 15th September and anything else is the week after.

Seems odd to divide it. Couldn’t they just do all the games avoiding the European games?

[RG30]

One thing to note about the draw is because of the extended Champions League format, not all 3rd Round matches are played in the same week. For example if you get drawn with a Europa League team, the scheduled fixtures would be I think w/c 15th September and anything else is the week after.

Seems odd to divide it. Couldn’t they just do all the games avoiding the European games?

Following the expansion of the European competition calendar ahead of the 2024/25 season, the EFL will again be required to implement additional conditions for the Carabao Cup Round Three draw.

In-line with last year’s competition, this season’s Carabao Cup Round Three fixtures will take place across two weeks (beginning 15 and 22 September), with fixtures in the Champions League (week beginning 15 September) and Europa League (week beginning 22 September) also scheduled during this period.

As UEFA competition fixtures cannot be rescheduled, and to enable the Carabao Cup to proceed within its agreed schedule without disrupting other League or domestic cup fixtures, the additional conditions will ensure that Clubs participating in the Champions League or Europa League cannot meet each other in Round Three of the League Cup.

This will ensure that both teams drawn in each tie will be able to fulfil the fixture in one of the allocated weeks.

It would always be the EFL’s preference to conduct the draw in the traditional manner, but these changes have been forced upon us for the second season in succession as a result of UEFA’s failure to consult with the Leagues of Europe prior to finalising its competition schedule.

These conditions will not be required for ties in Round Four.

The Round Three draw consists of 32 Clubs – 23 winners from Round Two along with the nine Premier League Clubs competing in UEFA competitions.

The UEFA Conference League, a competition Crystal Palace FC will be participating in should they qualify, is due to begin in October and therefore has no scheduling impact on the Carabao Cup Round Three draw.

For the main draw, two separate bowls will be utilised – one consisting of the eight UCL and UEL Clubs, and one consisting of the remaining 24 Clubs.

As the balls will be split across two pots, a pre-draw will be required first to determine whether each of the eight UCL/UEL teams will be playing home or away.

This will be drawn live on Sky Sports during the build-up to Grimsby Town’s Round Two tie against Manchester United.

For the main draw, the first eight-ties will be drawn by alternating between one Club from Bowl 1 and one Club from Bowl 2, with the Home/Away positioning of the UCL/UEL team already pre-determined in the earlier draw.

Once the first eight ties featuring the UCL/UEL teams have been drawn, the remaining eight ties will then be drawn from Bowl 2 only.

From this round of the competition, the draw is no longer regionalised into northern and southern sections.

Ball numbers for the main draw will be announced on the morning of Wednesday 27 August.

https://www.efl.com/news/2025/august/26/carabao-cup--round-three-draw-details-confirmed/

[parky]

So does this mean that the third round is effectively seeded with UCL and UEL clubs not being able to play each other?

[RG30]

So does this mean that the third round is effectively seeded with UCL and UEL clubs not being able to play each other?

Yes.

[Sutekh]

Another reason to do away with the tedious international breaks.

[stealthpapes]

Enjoyed that. Tidy performance with two good goals.
Good to see the wider squad - my thoughts are that we've got a pretty broad squad but there's a bit of something extra missing in attack.

So, on that note - Lane was OK but largely ineffectual, Garcia did better - starting to see what he's about, it's not necessarily traditional winger play, thought O'Mahony added some bite, with a good header well saved, Okine-Peters worked hard. Camara is a solid wide player, goal laid to him on a plate.

Their goal was weak.

[Mr Angry]

Enjoyable game to watch (on Sky - terrible commentary!); Wimbledon are no mugs (and are masters of the dark arts!) and will surprise a lot of teams this season; we did well to beat them last night.

I thought Fraser had a really good game even without his stunning goal; is there any way we can play him as the deepest lying midfielder collecting from the defence, thus allowing Wing to play further forward? He seemed comfortable doing that and a number of his clever passes opened Wimbledon up (one pass through to Doyle in the first half really should have been put away).

Lane played well as well; made himself a nuisance and looks a decent player; Garcia is very exciting to watch and a future superstar, and a positive word for Noel's substitutions - they all came on and did well, with Ahmed catching the eye.

It is coming together; to me it looks like the constituent parts to create a very effective winning team are there - a few tweaks here and there and we will climb the table.

[windermereROYAL]

Yes, the dark arts has mentioned above, we`d have a free kick in a dangerous position and a AFC player would end up on the floor and the ref nearly always fell for, same as the fake head injury in the first game.

[Sutekh]

One thing to note about the draw is because of the extended Champions League format, not all 3rd Round matches are played in the same week. For example if you get drawn with a Europa League team, the scheduled fixtures would be I think w/c 15th September and anything else is the week after.

Seems odd to divide it. Couldn’t they just do all the games avoiding the European games?

No, because of the irritating international breaks which ostensibly mean you lose two lots of midweeks, in this case the break is on the weekend of 6th September with games being played from the previous Wed/Thu through to the following Tue/Wed

Therefore the next week available is w/c 15th Sep which they're using for some of the games and the following week (w/c 22nd) for the remainder.

The only way round it currently therefore would be to schedule the early League Cup rounds into July and August, like they do in Scotland with their cup and the midweek league games you get in the lower divisions moved to the free September dates. But that'd be too sensible for the authorities to do.

[Snowflake Royal]

Thinking Doyle and Fraser may have made things fairly hard for Hunt for the next league game. Some players certainly didn’t help their cause (Rushesha, Stickland, JOP, Ryan). Actually thought Camara was pretty poor except the goal as well. Kyeweraa just shouts impact sub rather than starter to me

Elliott should be first name on the sheet

Lane was taken off likely to save him for a start. Reckon we’re looking at

Abrefa/Ahmed Burns Williams Jacob
Savage Wing Elliott
Lane O Mahony Garcia

But can see Doyle or Fraser getting in somewhere

Doyle has 65 minute sub for Elliott written all over him. Slightly quicker more attacking version. And may well over take Elliott before the season is out.

Fraser is fine back up for Wing or Savage, but I can't see him pushing either for their place.

I would still put Camara or Kyerewaa ahead of Garcia. Kyerewaa just adds an element of chaos, Camara is steady and going to keep ball better, and has Garcia's goal knack. None of them would be my ideal as starting LW.

Lane needs to deliver what he's capable of or he'll be stuck behind one of them too.

Was good to see Dorsett do ok at CB. I think Ryan answered the calls for him to start at LB with a 'not ready'.

Abrefa and Ahmed will continue to share the RB load.

[Hound]

Despite some useful contributions recently, I still don’t think Camara generally adds a lot. He’s good at keeping shape and passing the ball backwards but as an attacking threat, really very little (acknowledging a couple of goals this week)

Garcia was decent last night I thought. Starting to beat his man a bit more and get crosses in. Tidy generally

Kyeweraa just same old - runs around a lot and causes a bit of havoc but final ball/finish non existent. Of course that may improve in time

[stealthpapes]

Despite some useful contributions recently, I still don’t think Camara generally adds a lot. He’s good at keeping shape and passing the ball backwards but as an attacking threat, really very little (acknowledging a couple of goals this week)

Garcia was decent last night I thought. Starting to beat his man a bit more and get crosses in. Tidy generally

I mentioned this earlier - I think his approach/instinct to playing wide isn't to get many crosses in but get good crosses in. So trying to beat his man isn't really in his thoughts, he'd rather keep the ball or cut inside.

He's good, he will get a lot better.

[Royals and Racers]

We are ball 20 tonight.