Birmingham City 0-2 Fulham

Fulham progressed to the Third Round of the Carabao Cup with victory away at Birmingham City.

Marco Silva made 11 changes to the side that beat Leicester City 2-1 in the Premier League on Saturday; Steven Benda, Jorge Cuenca and Sander Berge made their debuts, with Joachim Andersen and Ryan Sessegnon making their second debuts.

Jay Stansfield made his first start of the season for Fulham on familiar territory, whilst academy loanee Luke Harris was ineligible to feature for Birmingham. Prior to kick-off, there was a minute of applause for former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson, who sadly passed away on Monday.

Fulham won a penalty on nine minutes as a Tom Cairney shot hit the arm of Alex Cochrane following a clever corner routine – Raúl Jiménez stepped up and made no mistake despite the home supporters’ best efforts to put the forward off, slotting to the left and sending Ryan Allsop the wrong way.

The lead was doubled just five minutes later, as Stansfield beat the offside trap from an Andersen pass and finished smartly to Allsop’s left. The forward’s celebration was muted and was met by an applause from the Birmingham supporters behind the goal.

Birmingham thought they had pulled one back on 25 minutes through Alfie May, who had lifted a clever shot over Benda from short distance, but Timothy Castagne raced back in time to acrobatically clear off the line.

Willum Willumsson went close five minutes before the break, as his left-footed free-kick from 20 yards rattled back off of the crossbar.

Harry Wilson went closest for Fulham in a largely uneventful second half, with a trademark cut-in from the right and left-footed long shot going narrowly over Allsop's bar. Birmingham's Cochrane stung the palms of Benda with a powerful effort from 25 yards.

17-year-old Josh King became the latest academy prospect to debut with the first team, replacing fellow debutant Berge on 65 minutes. He was unfortunate not to have marked his first appearance with a goal, tapping in from close range in added time, but the linesman adjudged Adama Traoré to have just ran the ball out of play before cutting the ball back.

Fulham will find out their Third Round opponents at approximately 10:15pm on Wednesday 28th, following the conclusion of the remaining Second Round ties.