Bournemouth have almost reached an impressive record in the Carabao Cup over the past few seasons, but they have always been lacking. They lost in the back-to-back quarterfinals, but Eddie Howe's men were still dangerous in this competition. They will want to get past the preliminary round with a direct clash with the League Two team facing them on Wednesday night. Can Cherry get a win to advance to the next round, or can the visitors do another surprise?
The hosts appeared solid in their home matches in this competition, winning four draws plus one extra-time win over Brighton. They were last beaten at home in 90 minutes when they faced Liverpool in 2014. We saw them coming through another match at the Vitality Stadium, even after their weekend defeat here. So far the Cherries have gotten one point from their first two home matches in the Premier League season after facing Sheffield United and Manchester City. They are indeed competing with City on Sunday, which shows things better for the host.
Forest Green missed out on the League Two playoffs last season but they aim to win promotion this season. They made the top three in the table at this early stage after some decent results so far. However, they made it that far thanks to an impressive defense, so hope they come to Vitality and try to keep everything tight. That's exactly what they did in the final round, holding Charlton to a 0-0 draw before winning on penalties in Valley. Trying to do it in the top tier team will be difficult.
Forest Green has to cover a lot of land to close Bournemouth, but we hope they try it. The visitors have scored one goal per game at the fourth level of the season, with five of their six matches in all competitions ending with less than three goals being scored. Now they are improving on what might be the toughest match of the season, so we can see them struggling to make an impact at Bournemouth.
The Cherries will come out to continue their four-game winning streak at home in this competition, while this is a rare clean sheet opportunity for them. They won 3-0 when they last met a team outside the top two divisions in this competition, which brought a 3-0 win over MK Dons. Now we see them pulling out the side of the Green Forest that will sit far away here. After a series of low scoring games for the visitors, we support Bournemouth to win and under 3.5 goals to score.
HEAD TO HEAD
The two met in the early stages of the FA Cup in 2004, with Bournemouth winning a repeat match 3-1 after drawing 1-1.
