Bidding for a Quarter-Final berth

Aston Villa look to book a place in the Quarter-Finals of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday evening, when making the long trip to the south coast to take on AFC Bournemouth (ko 7.45pm).

The Villans find themselves in a rich vein of form, and visit the Vitality Stadium searching for a fifth successive win and a fifth victory in a row away from home, while stretching their unbeaten run to eight.

Unai Emery’s men overcame Coventry City in round three, and have since failed to win just once in six games, drawing 2-2 against Brentford.

The Cherries, meanwhile, enter the clash on a hot streak of their own, winning their last four matches by an aggregate scoreline of 11-0.

A 3-0 triumph away at Old Trafford on Sunday followed a win by the same scoreline over AC Milan on home turf last week in the UEFA Europa League.

Round Three

Villa booked their place in round four with a comfortable 3-1 victory on the road at Coventry City last month.

Tammy Abraham and Ross Barkley netted in the opening period either side of Victor Torp’s equaliser for the hosts to successfully seal the visitors’ passage through from round three.

Bournemouth, meanwhile, opened their Carabao Cup campaign with an emphatic 4-0 victory at home to Championship Lincoln City.

Ryan Christie’s hat-trick was added to in the fourth minute of stoppage time by Rayan to round off their win.

The Last Meeting

The Villans and the Cherries played out a 1-1 draw on the last meeting between these two sides back in February.

Unai Emery’s men travelled to the Vitality Stadium and took the lead midway through the opening period when Morgan Rogers lashed home from inside the area.

But Bournemouth’s January signing Rayan cut inside 10 minutes into the second half and poked past Emi Martínez in the Villa goal to earn his side a share of the spoils.

Team News 

Villa were boosted by the return of Ian Maatsen on Saturday, the left-back completing 90 minutes against Manchester City.

Both he and Johan Manzambi could again feature, though Matteo Ruggeri, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Amadou Onana remain out injured.

Marco Rose confirmed Junior Kroupi wouldn’t start the game as he continues his phased return from injury having appeared off the bench over the weekend.

The Bournemouth boss also revealed pre-match that Igor Julio is "in a good shape", Amine Adli is "coming back" from his calf injury and Bafode Diakite and David Brooks are "waiting for minutes".

Managers' Pre-Match Thoughts