Nottingham Forest vs Stoke City. Carabao Cup Round 3.
The City GroundAttendance12,915.
Wednesday 26 September 2018 22:29, UK
Nottingham Forest pair Panagiotis Tachtsidis and Claudio Yacob could make their club debuts in the home Carabao Cup clash against Stoke on Wednesday night.
Midfielders Tachtsidis and Yacob joined the club as free agents at the start of the month and are poised to make their first appearances.
Boss Aitor Karanka is likely to make several changes and Liam Bridcutt is among those pushing for a place in the starting line-up. Karanka has no new injury concerns, while strikers Hillal Soudani (knee) and Daryl Murphy (calf) remain sidelined.
Stoke forward Mame Diouf is nursing a hamstring strain and could be one of several changes made by manager Gary Rowett. Defender Erik Pieters played the full 90 minutes in last week's home defeat to Blackburn after shaking off a hamstring niggle and could also be rested.
Bojan Krkic, Peter Crouch, Darren Fletcher and Saido Berahino are in contention for recalls.
Nottingham Forest haven't faced Stoke since New Year's Day 2005 in the Championship - Forest won 1-0 with a goal from Eugen Bopp.
Stoke haven't scored in 13 of their last 15 away matches at Nottingham Forest (W1 D7 L7) in all competitions, failing in each of their last five visits.
Since they were relegated from the Premier League in 1998-99, Nottingham Forest have reached the fourth round of the League Cup only once - in 2004-05.
Stoke have lost just one of their last eight away League Cup games (W5 D2), though that was their most recent away game, a 2-0 defeat to Bristol City in September 2017.
All of the previous four meetings between Aitor Karanka and Gary Rowett have ended as draws, all in the Championship between February 2015 and March 2018.
Stoke striker Saido Berahino ended a run of 48 matches in all competitions without a goal when he scored in the second round against Huddersfield - Berahino has scored six goals in his last eight League Cup appearances.
