4 hours ago
1
EFL Cup fourth round: Wrexham v Cardiff City
Venue: Stok Cae Ras Date: Tuesday, 28 October Kick-off: 20:00 BST
Coverage: Listen live on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Sounds, FM/DAB and Radio 5 Sports Extra 3
Wrexham welcome Cardiff City to Stok Cae Ras tonight as both sides have their sights firmly locked on a place in the last eight of the EFL Cup.
It will be the first meeting between the sides in more than two decades, and both will hope victory can serve as a further marker of their progress this season.
There may be around 146 miles between the home stadiums of the clubs, but the north v south encounter will undoubtedly serve as further fuel for the pair in their attempts to claim the bragging rights.
Here's the full lowdown on the all-Welsh contest.
The very fact these two clubs were paired together in last-16 contest means there will be at least one Welsh team in the quarter-finals of this season's competition, something that may have been unthinkable at the beginning of the campaign.
Championship side Wrexham are bidding to reach the last eight for only the third time in their history and for the first time since the 1977-78 season.
The Bluebirds, who lie second in League One, are on their best run in the competition since going all the way to the final in 2011-12, eventually being beaten by Liverpool on penalties.
Their only other run beyond the last-16 saw them progress to the semi-finals in 1965-66.
The winner will have a huge chance of landing a plum tie against Premier League opposition - 11 of the other 14 sides still in the tournament are from the top-flight.
Wrexham boss Phil Parkinson:
"I had a chat with the lads about our history in this competition and the rivalry between Wrexham and Cardiff.
"I don't think it needed too much explaining because everywhere I've been going in the last few weeks, supporters have been speaking to me about that and I'm sure the players have been the same."
Cardiff City head coach Brian Barry-Murphy:
"The whole club's really excited and we're not taking as many fans as we expect because of the limited number of tickets, but [there's] a huge swell of support to go and compete against a team from the same country. It's very exciting."
Wrexham will be without defender Lewis Brunt who is sidelined with a thigh injury.
Callum Doyle is suspended while Ben Sheaf (groin) and Ollie Rathbone (thigh) will be assessed.
As for Cardiff, they are expected to be without Chris Willock who is recovering from a quad injury.
Alex Robertson is likely to be in contention having made his first appearance of the season in Saturday's 1-0 loss to Bolton Wanderers.
This one may depend on who you believe, but bookmakers have Wrexham as the slight favourites to win the tie.
The Red Dragons have home advantage and now find themselves in a higher division than the Bluebirds.
Parkinson said: "Are we favourites? Home advantage, a division above them, I imagine the bookies will have us as slight favourites, but I'm not concerned about that either way.
"All we're concentrating on is our performance level and picking the team and bench we feel can give our fans the bragging rights in this Welsh derby."
Barry-Murphy was similarly diplomatic when it came to giving a verdict on which side are most fancied to emerge victorious.
"Well presumably they're (Wrexham) doing things in their own way. It's not for me, it's none of my business what they do," said Barry-Murphy.
"But what I've seen from them clearly already is they have an experienced team chock full of players who've been there, done it at that level, if not higher, and they've invested heavily in that.
"But our squad we believe is very capable of competing with teams who are at Championship level. So now we get a chance to go on Tuesday and show them, and that's where our intention will be."
