A goal from August Priske handed Birmingham City a 1-0 victory over Swansea City in their opening game of the 2026/27 campaign.
The Danish striker built on his impressive pre-season by squeezing home Carlos Vicenteâs centre on the stroke of half-time in what proved to be the only goal of the game at the Swansea.com Stadium.
As a result, Blues have progressed to the second round of the Carabao Cup in the ideal warm up for next week's Championship opener at Sheffield United.
Read our ratings HERE
Superb save from Beadle to deny Cabango from point-blank range. Strong left-hand and got the ball away from danger.
Davies has just made another two changes with little over 20 minutes to go. Ethan Laird and Luis Vazquez are on for Stansfield and Priske.
Ruebyn Ricardo will take charge of a Birmingham City game for the first time since he oversaw the ill-tempered 3-2 defeat to Hull City last October.
Ricardo has been appointed referee for Bluesâ season opener at Swansea City in the Carabao Cup, with Jacob Lehane and Matthew Sowerby assisting him, and Jacob Miles acting as fourth official.
It will be the first time Ricardo has refereed a Blues game since last October when he dished out 10 yellow cards and sent off Jack Robinson in a fiery clash at St Andrewâs against Hull.
Blues' starting XI - plus new signing Kristoffer Lund - are currently out on the pitch warming up.
They have gone through their usual running drills with fitness chief Dhani Pattison-Hughes and are now playing rondos under the watchful eyes of Jonathan Grounds and Tom Huddlestone.
Swansea have just emerged for their warm up, 10 minutes or so after Blues.
Three stands are open at the Swansea.com Stadium today with Blues fans having one end behind the goal to themselves.
There are arguments for and against whether it's better to have the Carabao Cup first round game played on the Saturday before the first game of the Championship season.
One of the commentators in the press box just made a very good point that the date has allowed both managers to name a full strength XI.
So often we see weakened XIs for the Carabao Cup first round match, which is usually played a few days after the league opener, but Chris Davies and Vitor Matos have gone for their strongest teams.
Kanya Fujimoto is the only player to drop out from the Birmingham City team that played Barcelona last weekend.
Chris Davies has otherwise opted for an unchanged XI. Paik Seung-ho is fit enough to start in Fujimoto's place to give Blues an extra midfielder against a Swansea team that usually operate in a 4-3-3 system.
New signings Kristoffer Lund and Luis Vazquez are included on a bench that doesn't include Fujimoto.
(4-2-3-1): Beadle; Osayi-Samuel, Neumann, Klarer, Cochrane; Iwata, Solis; Vicente, Paik, Stansfield; Priske
Subs: Allsop, Laird, Fry, Buchanan, Lund, Roberts, Gray, Wright, Vazquez
Games between Blues and Swansea in recent years have been closely run things.
Blues needed a stoppage time header from Lyndon Dykes to beat Swansea at home last season before the match in South Wales ended 1-1. Patrick Roberts scored in the second half of that one to cancel out Zan Vipotnik's opener.
The two games between the clubs in 2023/24 ended in draws.
Blues also started their season here with a league match in 2023, a game that ended 1-1 with Siriki Dembele on target for Blues.
Pre-season form tends to mean very little, but Chris Davies was quite happy to see his team come through their warm up matches unbeaten. Blues won all six of their games in front of supporters if you include the penalty shoot-out win over Barcelona last weekend.
Swansea started their pre-season campaign a little later because head coach Vitor Matos wanted to focus on coaching his players at the start of the summer.
Their first friendly was a 2-2 draw with Holstein Kiel before a defeat to Bochum and two wins over Udinese and Leganes to round off.
The Danish striker built on his impressive pre-season by squeezing home Carlos Vicenteâs centre on the stroke of half-time in what proved to be the only goal of the game at the Swansea.com Stadium.
As a result, Blues have progressed to the second round of the Carabao Cup in the ideal warm up for next week's Championship opener at Sheffield United.
Read our ratings HERE
Superb save from Beadle to deny Cabango from point-blank range. Strong left-hand and got the ball away from danger.
Davies has just made another two changes with little over 20 minutes to go. Ethan Laird and Luis Vazquez are on for Stansfield and Priske.
Ruebyn Ricardo will take charge of a Birmingham City game for the first time since he oversaw the ill-tempered 3-2 defeat to Hull City last October.
Ricardo has been appointed referee for Bluesâ season opener at Swansea City in the Carabao Cup, with Jacob Lehane and Matthew Sowerby assisting him, and Jacob Miles acting as fourth official.
It will be the first time Ricardo has refereed a Blues game since last October when he dished out 10 yellow cards and sent off Jack Robinson in a fiery clash at St Andrewâs against Hull.
Blues' starting XI - plus new signing Kristoffer Lund - are currently out on the pitch warming up.
They have gone through their usual running drills with fitness chief Dhani Pattison-Hughes and are now playing rondos under the watchful eyes of Jonathan Grounds and Tom Huddlestone.
Swansea have just emerged for their warm up, 10 minutes or so after Blues.
Three stands are open at the Swansea.com Stadium today with Blues fans having one end behind the goal to themselves.
There are arguments for and against whether it's better to have the Carabao Cup first round game played on the Saturday before the first game of the Championship season.
One of the commentators in the press box just made a very good point that the date has allowed both managers to name a full strength XI.
So often we see weakened XIs for the Carabao Cup first round match, which is usually played a few days after the league opener, but Chris Davies and Vitor Matos have gone for their strongest teams.
Kanya Fujimoto is the only player to drop out from the Birmingham City team that played Barcelona last weekend.
Chris Davies has otherwise opted for an unchanged XI. Paik Seung-ho is fit enough to start in Fujimoto's place to give Blues an extra midfielder against a Swansea team that usually operate in a 4-3-3 system.
New signings Kristoffer Lund and Luis Vazquez are included on a bench that doesn't include Fujimoto.
(4-2-3-1): Beadle; Osayi-Samuel, Neumann, Klarer, Cochrane; Iwata, Solis; Vicente, Paik, Stansfield; Priske
Subs: Allsop, Laird, Fry, Buchanan, Lund, Roberts, Gray, Wright, Vazquez
Games between Blues and Swansea in recent years have been closely run things.
Blues needed a stoppage time header from Lyndon Dykes to beat Swansea at home last season before the match in South Wales ended 1-1. Patrick Roberts scored in the second half of that one to cancel out Zan Vipotnik's opener.
The two games between the clubs in 2023/24 ended in draws.
Blues also started their season here with a league match in 2023, a game that ended 1-1 with Siriki Dembele on target for Blues.
Pre-season form tends to mean very little, but Chris Davies was quite happy to see his team come through their warm up matches unbeaten. Blues won all six of their games in front of supporters if you include the penalty shoot-out win over Barcelona last weekend.
Swansea started their pre-season campaign a little later because head coach Vitor Matos wanted to focus on coaching his players at the start of the summer.
Their first friendly was a 2-2 draw with Holstein Kiel before a defeat to Bochum and two wins over Udinese and Leganes to round off.
Related Coverage
- Swansea City 0-1 Birmingham City: August Priske goal sends Blues into EFL Cup second round â BBCTeam news | Swansea City v Birmingham City
- BBCTeam news | Swansea City v Birmingham City â Swansea City
- Swansea 0-1 Birmingham: Pragmatic Blues through to Carabao Cup round two â VAVEL.com
- Swansea City bow out of Carabao Cup after narrow defeat to Birmingham City â Wales Online
