A first meeting in just over 20 years, Wrexham play host to The Tigers as both sides look to start a successful Carabao Cup campaign.
After a solid overall display on opening day against Coventry, City will look to bleed-in some new faces and hand opportunities to some who might not feature as prominently throughout the championship season.
With the Carabao Cup being a competition where City have notoriously underperformed, Head Coach Sergej Jakirovic will be looking to put a stop to that, putting the sword to the (red) dragon.

Opponent Observations

Wrexham will, of course, see City two more times throughout the 2025/26 season as they are one of the 3 new kids on the block, after succeeding in their hattrick of back-to-back promotions all the way from the National League.
Wednesday night’s hosts suffered a gut-wrenching defeat away to Southampton, who did admittedly dominate for the majority, but the Welsh side took an early lead following some poor Saints defending, as Ronnie Edwards bowled over Kieffer Moore, leading to Hull native Josh Windass converting from 12 yards.
Wrexham led and endured their fair share of pressure, but it all counted for naught as Ryan Manning bent in an absolute beauty of a free-kick in the 90th minute, and then set up the winner 6 minutes later to seal all 3 points for The Saints.

Key Players:

It’s difficult to predict who will start, given it’s the early rounds of a cup competition, but here are a few players to keep an eye out for, if they feature…

Josh Windass

The son of City legend Dean, was a standout in Sheffield Wednesday’s 24/25 campaign, notching double-figure goals (13) as well as 5 assists, a strong season for any championship forward. Already scoring in the opening match against Southampton, the English forward will be looking to add to his tally, which is something he likes to do against The Tigers.

James McClean

The Irish winger captained Wrexham to promotion last season, playing in 42 of 45 matches and starting 39. He was one of Wrexham’s top performers, which is something he’s been consistently, since moving to North Wales, netting 4 times and providing 7 assists.

Ryan Longman

1 goal and 6 assists in the second half of last season, after joining from The Tigers, Longman played an important role in pushing Wrexham through the door to reach the hallowed Championship turf this season.
We all know how Ryan was at City, a bit of an in-and-out sort of player, not featuring until the 73rd minute in Wrexham’s opening game, so you may be asking, ‘Why do I need to look out for him?’
Well, former City players always score against us, don’t they, so you can count on Longman giving it his best effort, especially after being asked by the Wrexham media team who he was looking forward to playing the most this season. I don’t need to tell you the answer to that, do I?

Head to Head:

Since the turn of the millennium, City have only faced Wrexham 6 times, sitting very evenly at 2 wins, 2 draws, and 2 losses apiece, with the last meeting coming in 2005!

Their Last Few:
Melbourne Victory 0 - 3 Wrexham
Sydney FC 2 - 1 Wrexham
Wellington Phoenix 1 - 0 Wrexham
Southampton 2 - 1 Wrexham

Shared Shirts:

There’s only been a handful of players to feature in North Wales and East Yorkshire. Here are some of those who have donned the shirts of both sides:

Ryan Longman
Andy Cannon
Dean Keates
Jon Walters
Andy Holt

Predictions
My Lineup:

Goalkeeper: Dillon Phillips

Left Back: James Furlong
Centre Back: Akin Famewo
Centre Back: John Egan
Right Back: Cody Drameh

Midfield: Cathal McCarthy
Midfield: Kasey Palmer
Midfield: Joe Gelhardt

Left Wing: Pharrell Brown
Striker: Oli McBurnie
Right Wing: Nathan Tinsdale

Score Prediction:

It’s a tough one to call, because you never know how much each side will ‘go for it’ in the early round of a cup, but I think that City have enough, even with a rotated side, to ease past Wrexham, so I’m going for a 2-0 away win, seeing The Tigers move through to the Second Round of the Carabao Cup.