Barrow vs Aston Villa Prediction and Betting Tips

FOOTBALL LEAGUE fan James Potter (@thebettingdesk) oversees Tuesday night's televised EFL Cup action as Barrow welcome Aston Villa.

Barrow vs Aston Villa | Tuesday 24th August 2021, 19:45 | Sky Sports

Aston Villa boss Dean Smith is tipped to make several changes to his starting XI for their clash with Barrow.

Ollie Watkins is unlikely to feature, nor is Leon Bailey, who is battling a hamstring issue. Bertrand Traore, Morgan Sanson, Trezeguet and Keinan Davis are also unlikely to play given they have all been in the treatment room during recent weeks, which means that Villa are likely to line up with a mixture of fringe first-teamers and youth.

Wesley may start up top with Axel Tuanzebe and Kortney Hause in defence with the excellent named Marvelous Nakamba and Conor Hourihane in midfield. Youngsters such as Carney Chukwuemeka and Jaden Philogene-Bidace could also play along with a number of players looking to gain experience and I think this will be a tough game for them as Barrow are a physical side.

It’s a sellout crowd and the hosts will look to take the game to their visitors and unsettled some of the younger players in the starting line-up.

Looking out the underlying metrics, Barrow have the second-highest shots from crosses in the league and ranked highly for crosses, sitting third for most crosses in the six-yard box. They have a home xG of 1.84. So far this season, the hosts have had 16 shots from set pieces which is the fifth most in the league.

I will be very surprised if Villa play their usual keeper and back four, which mean that they could well be a little unorganised with players not used to playing together and Barrow could take advantage.

Barrow come into the game with an almost fully fit squad and will relish the opportunity to turn over one of the big boys live on TV. The crowd, whilst won’t be more than 6,000, will make a lot of noise and it will be a very new experience for most of the villa players in a small tight ground with the fans close to the pitch.

I am going to take Barrow to score but that’s a little skinny at 4/6 so have gone for both teams to find the net at 10/11 with Skybet.