DW Stadium will host the first game of Group C in the 2021-22 edition of the Football League Trophy as Wigan Athletic face the Wolverhampton Wanderers Under-21s on Tuesday.
The Wanderers made it to the second round of this competition last season before narrowly losing 2-1 to Port Vale, while Wigan were eliminated in the group stage, finishing in third place with four points.
Match preview
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After narrowly escaping relegation in League One a season ago, Leam Richardson has seen his side open this domestic campaign very well with three wins and a draw, as they currently sit in a tie for second with Sheffield Wednesday and Oxford United on 10 points.
In football, it is not how you start but rather how you finish, and that is a lesson that this team learned the hard way at this competition in 2020-21, winning their opening match 6-1 before losing their next game 3-1 and then squandering a 2-1 lead to Tranmere Rovers in their final group game, eventually losing on penalties.
As tough as it must have been to lose in that fashion, it looks like those lessons have developed a lot of character for this side through the early portion of this campaign, as they are unbeaten in their last six games in all competitions, winning two of their three league fixtures thanks to a goal in injury time.
For any team to have to play two to three games a week can be daunting, but the Latics have done an excellent job of staying motivated and focused despite that.
Last week they were able to get past their Greater Manchester rivals, Bolton Wanderers, defeating them 5-4 on penalties to advance to the third round of the EFL Cup.
They let a 1-0 lead slip away in their opening League One defeat to Sunderland, but they have recovered nicely with three clean sheets in their last four fixtures in all competitions.
While Wigan started impressively in this tournament last season, it was quite the opposite for the Wolverhampton youngsters, who were handed a 4-0 defeat in their opening match against Oldham Athletic but recovered to beat Bradford City on penalties before defeating Doncaster Rovers 2-1.
It was the second time that they had made the second round of this competition, and manager Jamie Collins will hope that his team can put together some similar performances this go-round.
On Friday, Wolves came out hungry and determined against the Nottingham Forest youngsters, scoring the only goal after 15 minutes of play for their second victory in their Premier League 2 campaign.
When they can start a match on the right foot, good things seem to happen for this team, who have scored the opening goal in two of their three games inside of 20 minutes, going on to win each time.
They have yet to win a game away from home this year, falling 3-0 to Reading in their only road match in the league so far, where they conceded the opener after only 21 minutes of play.
The Wanderers are still young and developing their technical skills, but they will want to improve their pass accuracy in this competition as they have yet to hit the 80% mark in that department in their three league fixtures.
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Team News
Callum Lang scored his second goal of the season over the weekend for the Latics in their 1-0 win over Portsmouth, while goalkeeper Jamie Jones was the hero in their second-round tie at the Carabao Cup, scoring the decisive penalty to send his team into the third round of that competition.
Ben Amos has started in goal in all three of their league fixtures, with the former Manchester United Academy player collecting three clean sheets in his last four league games, while their leading goalscorer last season, Will Keane, helped get their league campaign back on track with an injury-time strike to beat Rotherham 1-0.
As expected, the starting 11 looked very different on Saturday from the team that started in their victory against Bolton, with defenders Tendayi Darikwa, Kelland Watts and Tom Pearce being the only players to keep their place.
Wolves are likely to be missing Meritan Shabani with an unknown injury, while Joe Hodge is nursing a back problem.
Harry Birtwistle score the lone goal in their victory over Nottingham Forest, while striker Austin Samuels, who scored a brace in their 2-1 win over Middlesbrough, has been loaned to Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership.
Goalkeeper Andreas Sondergaard started his first game of the season in place of Louie Moulden, which was the only change to the starting 11 from their team that started against Reading.
Wigan Athletic possible starting lineup:
Jones; Darikwa, Whatmough, Watts, Pearce; Naylor, Cousins; Edwards, Massey, McClean; Humphrys
Wolverhampton Wanderers Under-21s possible starting lineup:
Sondergaard; Scott, Lonwijk, Marques, Hubner, Richards; Birtwistle, Hodge, Cundle; Carty, Campbell
We say: Wigan Athletic 2-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers Under-21s
Wigan have yet to lose this season on their home field and should be a little sharper on the technical side than their opponents, while they have also been an excellent defensive unit.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Wigan Athletic win with a probability of 69.47%. A draw had a probability of 17.4% and a win for Wolverhampton Wanderers Under-21s had a probability of 13.08%.
The most likely scoreline for a Wigan Athletic win was 2-0 with a probability of 10.21%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.61%) and 1-0 (8.55%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (8.04%), while for a Wolverhampton Wanderers Under-21s win it was 1-2 (3.78%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with a 3.6% likelihood.
