Southampton: Saints face trip to Fulham in Carabao Cup second-round

Southampton will begin their 2019/20 Carabao Cup journey with a trip to Craven Cottage to face Fulham.

The tie will be played during the week commencing the 26th August, which will be between Saints’ league clashes with Brighton and Manchester United.

Meetings between the two sides in recent seasons have seen 1-0 and 2-0 wins for Saints in the FA Cup and Premier League, whilst Fulham triumphed 3-2 in their league meeting in London last year.

13 top-flight teams that are not in European competitions join the Carabao Cup at this stage, and Ralph Hasenhuttl’s men will be one of them.

However, Saints will be hoping to have a good run in a cup competition this season with opportunities arising for teams of their standing in previous years.

Last season, they progressed past fellow Premier League sides in Brighton and Everton to reach the Fourth round of the Carabao Cup.

They were eventually dumped out by Leicester City on penalties at the King Power Stadium with Mark Hughes still as the club’s manager at that time.

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Saints’ most recent cup final was in the EFL Cup back in the 2016/17 campaign. They ran Manchester United close at Wembley but lost out 3-2 in the end.

As with most top-flight clubs, safety in the league will take priority for Ralph Hasenhuttl and his men. They may even be hoping that a comfortable finish allows them to continue a good run at a cup win.

Most Premier League sides field second-string teams in the Carabao Cup and some of Saints’ youngsters may well get an opportunity to take their first steps into senior football in the competition this time around.

However, Saints fans will be hoping that Hasenhuttl’s teams are still strong enough to win rounds and progress deep towards Wembley once again.

Hasenhuttl led Saints in two FA Cup Third round ties against Derby County last season but saw his side lose on penalties in a replay.

The Austrian will be wanting to improve on his record in cup competitions overall after just two wins in 10 DFB-Pokal games whilst managing SpVgg Unterhaching, VfR Aalen, FC Ingolstadt 04 and RB Leipzig in Germany.