Key events
Incidentally, Jack and Ramadani were recently involved in a full and frank exchange of views, and both have found themselves in the referee’s notebook as a result. Scales has also been yellow carded after going in hard on Morelos. There have been seven reds in the last eight stagings of this particular fixture, incidentally. Like we say, no love lost.
Aberdeen come close to equalising twice in a couple of minutes. First Duk makes a nuisance of himself on the left-hand corner of the Rangers six-yard box, the ball twanging off the post, then ruffling the side netting. A claim that Tavernier had handled, but nothing doing. Then Lopes makes good down the left and finds Ramadani in acres just inside the box on the right. Ramadani only has McGregor to beat, but drags his shot wide right. A fine response to falling behind from the Dons.
Wilson has a goal chalked off for offside at St James’ Park. VAR has probably done Bournemouth a solid here, as while Wilson was sweeping into the bottom right from 12 yards, the flag went up with Willock prone nearby. Not sure Willock touched that, nor was he interfering with play. He might not even have been offside, with Almiron the only player stranded, and he was miles away from the action. A fair chance VAR would have unpacked all of that in Newcastle’s favour, but it’s still goalless.
GOAL! MK Dons 0-2 Leicester (Perez 29)
Leicester double their lead with a lovely goal. Thomas creams a long pass down the inside-left channel. Perez takes it down with a silky touch, sending Tucker off to the tuck shop, and threading forensically into the bottom left. That’s delicious!
There was a small pause as VAR checked whether the ball brushed Sakala’s arm. But it clearly came off his chest. And Aberdeen are rattled, allowing Morelos another chance from ten yards. His drive is straight at Roos, who parries well.
GOAL! Aberdeen 0-1 Rangers (Sakala 12)
Rangers score first for once! Morelos bustles down the right and into the box. He crosses. Sakala takes a swipe at the ball, not in a particularly progressive fashion. Up onto his own chest and away. Stewart tries to clear but makes a hash of it. Sakala doesn’t turn down a second chance, poking home the rebound.
GOAL! Southampton 1-1 Lincoln (Adams 25)
Saints are back on terms at St Mary’s, and it’s a controversial one. Elyounoussi spins and sends a lovely looping cross into the Lincoln box from the right wing. Adams is alone on the penalty spot, and steers a header into the top right. He doesn’t celebrate much, and looks a bit sheepish. He looked a smidgen offside. But there’s no VAR, and the goal’s given!
Post-Mondial Existential Angst with Adam Kline-Schoder. “Please help me: is this real? How is it possible that I’m already back watching Southampton losing? I feel like it was simultaneously six years ago and five minutes ago that I was watching them throw away yet another two-goal lead, and yet here we are, 64 games and a different men’s world champion later. How do we resume normal life after That Final?”
GOAL! MK Dons 0-1 Leicester (Tielemans 18)
A lovely goal for the Foxes at the MK Dons. Barnes races down the left wing and fires in a low cross. Vardy tries to flick the ball home from six yards, a decent first-time effort that’s parried by Cumming in the MK goal. The ball breaks to Tielemans, who drives the rebound home from the penalty spot.
Aberdeen and Rangers take to the pitch at Pittodrie. Always a fair chance of this fixture descending into an outrageous donnybrook. No love lost. They’ll be kicking off in a minute.
Actually, looking at a replay of the Lincoln goal, it does look as though Bazunu beat O’Connor to the ball, only for his weak punch to sail apologetically into the top-left corner. Lincoln continue to be on top as they look to double their lead. The slowest of slow start for Nathan Jones at his new manor.
Otherwise, a quiet start to the evening. This Clockwatch was never going to be an energy piece. Then again, the World Cup final took the best part of 80 minutes to really get going, and look how that ended.
GOAL! Southampton 0-1 Lincoln (Bazunu 2 og)
A shock start at St Mary’s! A Lincoln corner sent in from the left. Maitland-Niles takes a wild swipe at the ball in his attempt to clear it. The ball balloons miles into the sky and back towards his own goal. On the line, Bazunu goes up with O’Connor, who may or not win the header that forces the ball over the line. The keeper’s been awarded the own goal, for now.
The League Cup matches are kicking off in Milton Keynes, Southampton, Newcastle and Wolverhampton. Action soon! Action hopefully soon!
Julen Lopetegui takes charge of Wolves for the first time. He names a strong side including Diego Costa and Daniel Podence, plus, returning from the World Cup, Jose Sa and Ruben Neves. Raul Jimenez and Hwang Hee-chan are also back from Qatar, but will start on the bench.
Gillingham make three changes from their last match, an FA Cup win over Dagenham & Redbridge in early December. Stuart O’Keefe, Cheye Alexander and Mikael Mandron all step up.
Southampton are able to select Kyle Walker-Peters for the first time in two months as the right-back returns from a hamstring injury. He’s one of three players recalled by Nathan Jones following the 3-1 Premier League defeat at Liverpool, along with Lyanco and Ainsley Maitland-Niles. Armel Bella-Kotchap and Mohammed Salisu also start after their World Cup exploits.
Lincoln make two changes from the goalless draw at Wycombe a couple of weekends ago. Defender Sean Roughan and midfielder Daniel Mandroiu replace Jamie Robson and Jack Diamond.
All five of Newcastle’s returning World Cup stars get straight back to work at the day job. Nick Pope, Kieran Trippier, Fabian Schar, Bruno Guimaraes and Callum Wilson all start, as Eddie Howe makes just one change to the side that beat Chelsea before the Premier League power-down: Chris Wood is replaced by Wilson.
Bournemouth welcome back Wales internationals Chris Mepham and Kieffer Moore to domestic duty. Mepham is one of three changes to the side that beat Everton 3-0 in the Premier League: he, Ryan Christie and Jaidon Anthony replace Jack Stephens, Jefferson Lerma and Marcus Tavernier.
The managerless MK Dons make two changes from the side that beat Portsmouth last weekend, their first League One win in nearly a month. Will Grigg and Dawson Devoy replace Nathan Holland and Bradley Johnson, the latter assuming caretaker-to-the-caretaker duties with actual interim boss Dean Lewington away getting surgery on a hamstring problem.
Leicester welcome back Danny Ward, Wout Faes, Timothy Castagne, Youri Tielemans and Daniel Amartey from World Cup duty. James Maddison, who didn’t get any game time with England in Qatar, won’t be back until the Boxing Day game with Newcastle United.
Carabao Cup team news
Milton Keynes Dons: Cumming, Tucker, O’Hora, Jules, Watson, McEachran, Devoy, Harvie, Eisa, Grant, Grigg.
Subs: Smith, Robson, Holland, Oyegoke, Kemp, Barry, Lawrence, Ravizzoli, Dennis.
Leicester City: Ward, Castagne, Amartey, Faes, Thomas, Soumare, Perez, Tielemans, Praet, Barnes, Vardy.
Subs: Albrighton, Iheanacho, Daka, Vestergaard, Mendy, Ndidi, Iversen, McAteer, Alves.
Newcastle United: Pope, Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn, Longstaff, Bruno Guimaraes, Willock, Almiron, Wilson, Joelinton.
Subs: Lascelles, Shelvey, Saint-Maximin, Ritchie, Targett, Manquillo, Wood, Murphy, Darlow.
Bournemouth: Travers, Smith, Mepham, Senesi, Zemura, Christie, Cook, Billing, Anthony, Solanke, Moore.
Subs: Marcondes, Stacey, Lowe, Dembele, Hill, Greenwood, Plain, Sadi, Adu-Addei.
Southampton: Bazunu, Walker-Peters, Kotchap, Lyanco, Salisu, Perraud, Elyounoussi, Ward-Prowse, Maitland-Niles, Adam Armstrong, Adams.
Subs: McCarthy, Caleta-Car, Aribo, Stuart Armstrong, Mara, Djenepo, Edozie, Diallo, Walcott.
Lincoln City: Rushworth, Walsh, Jackson, O’Connor, Poole, Virtue, Sanders, Roughan, Vernam, House, Mandroiu.
Subs: Oakley-Boothe, Hopper, Bishop, Garrick, Robson, Sorensen, Eyoma, Wright.
Wolverhampton Wanderers: Jose Sa, Nelson Semedo, Collins, Kilman, Bueno, Neves, Hodge, Joao Moutinho, Goncalo Guedes, Costa, Daniel Podence.
Subs: Ait Nouri, Jimenez, Hwang, Sarkic, Gomes, Ronan, Matheus Luiz, Adama Traore, Lembikisa.
Gillingham: Turner, Alexander, Wright, Ehmer, Baggott, Tutonda, Jefferies, Williams, O’Keefe, Mandron, Adelakun.
Subs: MacDonald, Lee, Reeves, Kashket, Holtam.
Aberdeen boss Jim Goodwin makes two changes to the side that lost late on to Celtic on Saturday. Liam Scales replaces Jack MacKenzie at the back, while Jayden Richardson replaces winger Matty Kennedy.
Rangers manager Michael Beale makes one alteration to the side that twice came back from behind against Hibs to win 3-2 at Ibrox last Thursday evening. Connor Goldson returns from injury, with John Lundstram dropping to the bench.
Scottish Premiership team news
Aberdeen: Roos, McCrorie, Stewart, Scales, Richardson, Barron, Ramadani, Clarkson, Coulson, Miovski, Lopes.
Subs: Lewis, MacKenzie, Morris, Besuijen, Watkins, Hayes, Duncan, Milne, Ramirez.
Rangers: McGregor, Tavernier, Goldson, Sands, Devine, Kamara, Jack, Sakala, Tillman, Kent, Morelos.
Subs: Lundstram, Matondo, Scott Wright, Davies, McCann, McLaughlin, Arfield, King, Lowry.
Preamble
… and so, after the Lord Mayor’s Show, we come back down to earth …
… with a Carabao Cup four-fer and a match from the Scottish Premiership.
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Milton Keynes Dons v Leicester City
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Newcastle United v Bournemouth
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Southampton v Lincoln City
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Wolverhampton Wanderers v Gillingham
Kick off is at 7.45pm GMT (8pm at Pittodrie) with our hearts still at the Lusail Iconic Stadium in Lusail, Qatar. يحدث! It’s on!