Barnsley welcome in Everton in Capital One Cup 2nd round

Everton travel to South Yorkshire for the second round of the Capital One Cup, and are odds-on at 8/13 with Coral to beat Barnsley.

The last time these two sides last met was when the Tykes were in the Premier League in the 1997/98 season, with Barnsley holding the Toffees to a 2-2 draw, with now revered football pundit Jan-Aage Fjortoft on the scoresheet for the hosts, though Everton beat them 4-2 at Goodison Park.

Lee Johnson’s side needed penalties to dispose of Scunthorpe United in the first round of the competition, though are unbeaten since that match, having won twice and drawn. A Josh Scowen penalty put them ahead against the Lincolnshire outfit and is 15/2 to find the net again anytime, while attacker Sam Winnall is 14/5 in the same market.

Despite a defeat against a very good Manchester City side last time out, Everton have been impressive this season and striker Romelu Lukaku looks in the mood. The Belgian frontman is 7/2 to break the deadlock and 4/1 to score to two or more, having bagged a brace on his last away visit, which resulted in a 3-0 win against Southampton.

Ivory Coast attacker Arouna Kone has also started the season brightly, linking well with Lukaku and scoring in the 2-2 draw with Watford, so his odds of 7/2 to open the scoring are deemed decent.

Following their defeat against Man City, Toffees boss Roberto Martinez said his side are looking to improve: “You go into games to try and win them and that’s the only thing that matters.

“I think we had our moments. There were a couple of close situations that we had a couple of actions. If we could have scored the first goal the game would have changed immensely. We had very good moments. I don’t think they carried too much threat until the goal.

“The goal is a disappointment, we lose the ball cheaply and we’re a bit unfortunate in that action on the counter-attack.

“We clipped the crossbar, had a goal disallowed – it was a very good decision from the linesman – but was a close one and on another day could have gone either way. I think that first goal would have made all the difference,” he continued.

“It shows you we’re getting very close to a very good level but we still want to carry on getting better and developing and we’ve still got that room to do it.”

Coral’s top tip: Lukaku to score two or more @ 4/1