Match Day Thread Watford v Swansea City

Watford v Swansea City

Competition - Carabao League Cup
Stage - Round 3
Venue - Vicarage Road
Kick off - 19.45
Date - 24 September 2019

Following their deserved away draw at Ashton Gate against Bristol City, next up for Steve Cooper’s Swansea squad is a visit to play Premier League Watford in the League Cup.

At Ashton Gate, it took 34 minutes before a shot was delivered on target and even then Josh Brownhill's free-kick was curled routinely into the arms of Freddie Woodman.

It had been Brownhill himself who had been hacked down for the set-piece, though the initial attack was engineered by first-half substitute Diediou who had provided a greater threat to Johnson's side, shorn of the services of long-term injury victim Benik Afobe.

He could have added real significance to his early impact had his touch on Callum O'Dowda's 39th minute centre not squirmed past the far post.

Through Ayew, Swansea had an outlet to worry the hosts and, with 18 minutes remaining, only the smart reactions of Bentley denied the Ghana forward after being played in on goal.

Swansea had to sweat in the final moments when they were reduced to 10 men following Bidwell's touchline lunge on Niclas Eliasson.

Whilst the Swans were picking up a point at Ashton Gate, Watford were suffering their worst ever defeat losing 0-8 at Man City.

City scored the opener after 52 seconds through David Silva before Sergio Aguero added a penalty and Riyad Mahrez struck via a deflection.

Bernardo Silva headed the fourth and Nicolas Otamendi slid in the fifth. After the break City's intensity eased but Bernardo Silva struck twice more and Kevin de Bruyne slammed in the eighth.

Turning to Tuesday, Cooper is likely to make wholesale changes (the Reading match on Saturday is far more important), whilst Watford’s new Manager Quique Sanchez Flores may decide to pick the players to lost on Saturday in an attempt to re-build confidence......

I think that if the Swans could score first they may very well shatter any (fragile) confidence that Watford may have. That said, I’ve a feeling that the Hornets will win 3-2

 

Todays squad who beat Sunderland 1-0 earlier .
Swansea City U23s:Gould; Rushesha, Evans, Cooper (capt), Jones; Williams, Paulet; Cooper, Evans, Jones-Thomas; Cullen.

Subs: Webb, Blake, de Boer, Berry, Thomas.

No Garrick, Cabango or Wilmot so they may feature Tuesday

 

Probably two second-string teams separated by only two places in the leagues. I predict a close game, maybe decided on penalties.

 

Watford will want to put the 8 -0 humiliation behind them and give their fans something back i am expecting, So we have to be ready for that for sure. And our problem has returned with lack of shots on target (only 2 in 2 games).. We need to regain our early form i feel if we are going to beat them on their own pitch......

 

Wilmot out of contention for this one so the centre half pairing will be interesting ,

 

Naughton? But he should be ‘saved’ for Saturday!

 

Well with our unsuccessful appeal for Bidwell sending off it'll be interesting how Cooper approaches this conundrum .We have a good chance tomorrow against a side who's defensive frailties were exposed and no we're not Citeh but still some of their goals conceded were comical and their only a couple of positions above us

 

2-1

 

Swans win 1-2

 

We've only conceded 1 goal away so far this season, I'm hopeful that number won't increase tomorrow

 

We will make changes Matt.League priority.Hope you are right.
My head rules my heart on this.

 

Me, I'm the eternal optimist , until proved otherwise

 

Nil nil all the way to penalties.

 

Is there extra time in round 3?

No, only extra time in the final.

 

Can you have nil - nil on penalties as well - just to make sure

 

I live near the Watford training ground which just happens to be right next door to Arsenal's and it absolutely lashing down here at the moment but then you have blue sky for a bit. Could be the weather for an upset!

 

Don't spose there will be a stream of this one anywhere? SwansTV can't carry it due to EFL restrictions.

 

Don't think there will be.

 

I'm driving to Bournemouth during theatch so I can't even listen to it on the radio!!!

 

if this rain doesn't stop , steams will be the least of our worries