• Competition: Football League Trophy
• Date: 3rd September 2024
• Kick-off: 19:00 UTC +1 / 20:00 CEST
• Venue: Highbury Stadium

The group stage of the Football League Trophy kicks off this week, with Fleetwood vs Aston Villa U21 among the 17 games scheduled for Tuesday.

Fleetwood Town currently compete in Football League 2 where they sit in 13th place, while their visitors are 12th in the Premier League 2.

The hosts started their league campaign with a win over Grimsby Town over two weeks ago at the Highbury Stadium where they also kept a clean sheet. They followed that result up with a 2-1 win over West Brom in the League Cup first round, but their performances in the league haven’t been great since then. Fleetwood are currently winless in their last three league games, losing one and drawing two.

Aston Villa U21 have not also had the best of starts to the 2024-25 campaign. The young Villains thrashed Derby County U21 3-1 in their opening day of the campaign, but couldn’t replicate that performance in the second game as they played out a draw with Leeds United U21. Josep Gombau’s men were humiliated in their most recent game by Arsenal U21 at the Meadow Park where they suffered a 4-1 defeat.

Fleetwood vs Aston Villa U21 Betting Tips: Over 2.5 goals

The only previous meeting between these two sides was four years ago but that was in this same competition. Villa conceded three goals without reply and their current form doesn't suggest a different outcome this week. The visitors come into Tuesday’s game with just one clean sheet from their last 12 outings and shipped more than two goals in nine of those fixtures.

• Best Tip: Best Tip: Over 2.5 goals
• Fleetwood vs Aston Villa U21 prediction: 2-1