At A Glance
Aston Villa travel to Bolton Wanderers on Tuesday night looking to secure progress in the Carabao Cup (ko 7.45pm).
Steven Gerrard’s side face the League One outfit at the University of Bolton Stadium in their Round Two tie.
Villa, five-time winners of the League Cup and runners-up in 2019/20, have progressed to at least Round 3 of the competition in five of the last seven seasons.
They face a Wanderers side who were 5-1 victors against Salford City in Round One, and are currently seventh in League One having won two and drawn two of their opening five fixtures in 2022/23.
The club received an allocation of 5,246 tickets for the clash, with the tie also live on Sky Sports and audio commentary available right here on our official website.
Standout Stats
Villa last faced Bolton in the 2018/19 Championship promotion-winning season, recording a league double (2-0 both home and away).
The two teams have only played out one draw in their last 11 meetings in all competitions stretching back to 2009 (Villa W6, D1, L4).
Their last meeting in the League Cup came in September 2011, with Wanderers 2-0 winners at Villa Park.
It was Bolton who triumphed 5-4 on aggregate when the two sides met in the 2003/04 semi-finals, with a 2-0 second leg victory at Villa Park not enough to overcome a 5-2 first-leg defeat.
Bolton were 5-1 victors against Salford City in Round One, and are currently seventh in League One having won two, drawn two and lost one of their opening five fixtures in 2022/23.
Villa, five-time winners of the League Cup, have failed to reach at least Round 3 of the competition in just two of the last seven seasons.
The Last Meeting
Villa travelled to Bolton in April 2019 looking to extend a then eight-match winning run in the Championship.
And they did just that courtesy of two headers in 10 minutes from Jack Grealish and Tammy Abraham early in the second half, with the Villa pair also claiming neat assists for each other.
It was a club record-equalling ninth successive victory for the Villans and a result which inflicted relegation to League One for the Trotters.
Team News
Steven Gerrard will again be without centre-back Diego Carlos after he suffered an Achilles injury in the Premier League encounter against Everton.
The Villa boss has vowed to name a strong side for the cup fixture but says there will be some changes from Saturday's defeat at Crystal Palace in order to freshen his line-up.
The Boss
“Everyone will want to play in this game, I’m sure they will, especially after the feeling of Saturday," said Gerrard.
“So we’ll dust ourselves down from the result and we’ll be strong, we’ll pick a strong team.
“I think when the TV cameras come to games like this, you know what the outside world are after.
“We need to respect that and protect ourselves from that, and we need to bounce back from Saturday’s result and put ourselves in the next round.
“That’s the challenge for the players; we’ll treat this game with serious importance.”
He added: “There will be changes, of course. I think the game is close enough (from Saturday) for us to maybe try and freshen it up and re-energise the squad and the team.
“But there won’t be wholesale changes and it won’t be ‘oh, it’s the League Cup, let’s make all kinds of changes’. We’ll be strong.”
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