AFC Wimbledon vs Ipswich Prediction: Ali to land first punch

Fresh from a 4-1 thrashing by Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, Ipswich Town visit very different surroundings on Wednesday evening (19:45, Sky Sports+) when they take a trip to south-west London to face AFC Wimbledon in the second round of the Carabao Cup.

Read below for my AFC Wimbledon vs Ipswich prediction and all the latest team news ahead of this cup clash at the Cherry Red Records Stadium.

Team News

AFC Wimbledon beat newly promoted League 2 side Bromley in the first round of the Carabao Cup on August 13. Manager Johnnie Jackson made six changes to his starting XI from the one that had beaten Colchester United 4-2 in their first league game of the season three days prior.

Joe Pigott was the match-winner in the first round and the 30-year-old striker will hope to get the nod again up top after netting the game's only goal in Saturday's 1-0 victory at Cheltenham Town. The Leyton Orient loanee could be joined in attack by Lebanon international Omar Bugiel, who struck 13 times for the Dons in League 2 last season, and once in the Carabao Cup.

Wing-back Huseyin Biler started in the first round but may miss out on Wednesday after an injury forced him off in the EFL Trophy win against Wycombe Wanderers last week. The 22-year-old was subsequently sidelined for the weekend triumph at Cheltenham.

Football Odds

Ipswich started life back in the Premier League with a 2-0 home defeat to Liverpool. Kieran McKenna made three changes to his starting XI for the trip to Manchester on Saturday, with Arijanet Muric, Ben Johnson and Sammie Szmodics replacing Christian Walton, Wes Burns and Conor Chaplin as the Tractor Boys lined up with a five-man defence in an attempt to combat the Citizens.

McKenna is likely to revert to a four-man defence on Wednesday, but it remains to be seen whether he sticks with number-one goalkeeper Muric for continuity or if Walton is given the responsibility for cup matches. Whoever starts between the sticks, they are likely to have Cameron Burgess, George Edmundson and Conor Townsend in front of them as the trio eye their first starts of the campaign. Johnson could be the fourth defender after making his full debut at the Etihad.

In midfield, Napoli loanee Jens Cajuste is expected to start, and he could be joined by Jack Taylor. Captain Sam Morsy may retain his place, meanwhile.

McKenna has plenty of options in attack now after signing Jack Clarke from Sunderland last week and after playing the Championship side's first two league games of the season, he could be thrown straight into the starting XI on Wednesday.

Marcus Harness and Conor Chaplin are also vying for starts across the forward line, while Ali Al-Hamadi, who joined Ipswich from Wimbledon in January, will be desperate to line up at his old stomping ground.

Burns and Kalvin Phillips were sidelined through injury on the weekend - the latter was ineligible to face his parent club anyway - and the duo are set to miss out again in midweek, as are Nathan Broadhead, George Hirst and Janoi Donacien.

AFC Wimbledon vs Ipswich Odds

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The hosts are 5/1 to beat their Premier League visitors in regulation time, giving them an implied win probability of 16.7%, while Ipswich are 4/9, or a 69.2% chance, to get the job done within 90 minutes (plus any added time). The draw, meanwhile, would take the tie to a penalty shoot-out, and that can be backed at 7/2.

Both teams to score is 4/6 and over 3.5 total goals is 5/4.

Ali Al-Hamadi First Scorer @ 4/1

A player scoring against his former club is a tale as old as time, but despite the obviousness of the pick, I'm still backing Al-Hamadi to fire one past his ex-teammates on Wednesday. The 22-year-old is 11/10 to score anytime but we can up those odds to 4/1 by selecting him to net the first goal of the game, something which would be helped enormously by starting.

Summer signing Liam Delap has started Ipswich's first two league games of the season, being substituted late on for Al-Hamadi against both Liverpool and Man City. Delap is likely to get the nod again in Saturday's Premier League contest against Fulham at Portman Road, a game the Tractor Boys will have targeted as one they can win. Considering the importance of that match, I expect McKenna to make changes in midweek, and with Hirst injured, the coast should be clear for Al-Hamadi to line up against his old side - assuming there is no movement on his potential loan exit from the club beforehand.

The Iraq international made an instant impression amongst Town supporters after joining at the end of January, netting in his third appearance against Millwall. Al-Hamadi added a further three goals across the rest of the season to help fire the Tractor Boys to automatic promotion, though 13 of his 14 outings in the Championship came from the substitutes bench.

Regardless, the forward has already shown in his short time at the club that when he gets an opportunity, he will take it, and I see him doing so again on Wednesday in front of supporters who were cheering his name at the start of the calendar year.

To Score in Both Halves - Ipswich @ 1/1

Town were shut out in the first game of the season against Liverpool, but it wasn't for the want of trying as they had the better of the first-half opportunities against the Reds. They got on the scoresheet a week later, however, with Szmodics netting within seven minutes against City to send Ipswich into a shock lead at the Etihad. It didn't last long but it was a reminder of just how dangerous McKenna's side can be in attack, and against a club three divisions below them, the Tractor Boys will believe that they can grab a few goals in south-west London on Wednesday.

Wimbledon have kept back-to-back clean sheets in the lead-up to this cup contest, beating Wycombe 1-0 in the EFL Trophy before winning by the same scoreline at Cheltenham in League 2 on Saturday. However, before those victories, they lost 2-0 in the league at Bromley, four days after conceding the first goal of the game at the same venue in the Carabao Cup, and in the Dons' first match of the 2024/25 campaign, they shipped two goals in the first 10 minutes against Colchester United, eventually winning 4-2 at the Cherry Red Records Stadium.

Ipswich will have plenty of players eager to impress in midweek, with those on the fringes of the side desperate to impress from the off, and the more established starters looking to get their first goal of the season off the bench.

Town ended the previous campaign by scoring in both halves of their last four games, and against a lower-league side on Wednesday, they can return to that form.

Offers

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