Aston Villa to face Colchester in first round of the Carabao Cup

Aston Villa found out their League Cup fate today live from Bangkok as the first round of the ‘Carabao Cup’ (named after the energy drink that sponsors the competition).

The Villans will be playing away to Colchester United - and a victory won’t be guaranteed. We’ll all fondly remember crashing out in the same round last season to Luton. Villa will travel to the Weston Homes Community Stadium to play Colchester United and the U’s will be looking to claim a big scalp.

Villa have been drawn in the ‘Southern Section’ (to minimise travel time the cup has been split) of the tournament - and were seeded, so there was no chance of drawing a Championship opponent in this round. The competition starts for lower-league clubs, like Villa, in the week commencing August 7th before clubs in the Premier League are dropped in during the later rounds.

It’ll be a chance for Steve Bruce to get his side settled with any new signings before embarking on what we’d hope is a successful campaign in the Championship.