Swansea City 0 v 1 Birmingham City
Carabao Cup
Saturday, 8th August 2026 Kick-off 15:00

Swansea City : Leganés, Blues build up & striker on his way to the Swans ?
Monday, 3rd Aug 2026 12:30 by Olle Söderholm

The pre-season has come to an end. CD Leganés was our final test, and Matos now has less than a week before the stakes become real. Birmingham City awaits, but first let's take what we can from that friendly at the Swansea.com Stadium. Plus we have news of a striker signing by the Swans rumoured.

CD Leganés finished 16th in the Segunda División last season, 6 points above relegation, and lost both of their previous friendlies, against Levante and Real Madrid, heading into this game.

Something that has been obvious throughout these pre-season friendlies is that the Swansea press has been very effective at creating chances. Perhaps it's because our opponents are making more mistakes than usual in pre-season, or perhaps it's because our press is getting better and better under Matos — probably a bit of both. Either way, Leganés struggled with it. Just before half-time, Adam Idah chased a poor back-pass towards Leganés keeper Miguel San Román — who is not a starter — and under pressure, Román cleared the ball straight to Joseph Opoku, who had an empty net to shoot at from 30 yards and duly converted. Opoku did well to finish from there, but it's the recurring theme of us creating chances through pressure on backlines that I take away as the biggest positive.

Moussa Yeo in Austria

Adam Idah set up the goal with his great run, but he was brilliant on the ball as well, demonstrating that he can receive it with his back to goal and, with good awareness, find teammates in good positions. Elijah Just should have scored in the first half after Idah played him through on goal. It was a very good showing from the Irishman, which feels reassuring should Zan Vipotnik leave this summer.

We finally saw Vipotnik get some minutes in this game; based on the highlights he didn't get to do much. (Rumours now of Coventry City today 3/8/2026) In the second half, Leganés had some chances, especially on one counter-attack where they should have scored. Otherwise, Swansea showed some glimpses of quality: Idah and Just combined on the right, Opoku was close to finishing the move with a goal, Walta produced a great turn and a good pass to Ronald who couldn't put it away, and the press threatened again without yielding a second goal. Overall a decent performance, with our attackers' creativity and hunger being the standout quality from this game.

The Swans concluded our pre-season with two wins, but now the real season begins.

Birmingham City on Saturday in the EFL Cup — a good test
Under American owners Shelby Companies Ltd, with minority stakeholder Tom Brady, Birmingham cruised through League One in 2024-25 with a stated target of reaching the play-offs in their first Championship season. They finished 10th in a campaign riddled with hot and cold streaks. Their summer transfer business has been slower than expected, but they have managed to offload some underperforming players and add some reinforcements. Their most important business was securing Brighton keeper James Beadle on another loan and making Jhon Solís' move permanent, having signed him from Girona.

Birmingham have had a good pre-season, winning against Huddersfield and National League side Solihull Moors, and drawing with FC Barcelona last Friday. The Barcelona game ended 2-2 — Birmingham winning on penalties — though it should be said that Barça didn't field anything close to their first-choice squad; even so, Barça's fourth-best eleven is more than a tough challenge for a Championship side, with players like Andreas Christensen, Gerard Martín and new signing Karim Adeyemi all starting. Birmingham can be happy with that result, and equally happy that striker August Priske, who joined from Swedish side Djurgården last year, has begun to find his feet after a difficult first season in England.

Birmingham are coming on strong, and you could say on that performance looked way ahead of the Swans in their pre season preparations. And if last season is anything to go by, the Swans might struggle. The first meeting ended 1-0 to Birmingham at St.Andrew's, with Alan Sheehan's side looking quite exposed to the Birmingham attack, though a 90+4 goal was required to seal it.

In January, the home fixture was played at the Swansea.com Stadium (below) with Vitor Matos now in the dugout. The Swans put in a much better performance, and should have been more than 1-0 up at half-time. In the second half, we took our foot off the gas and let Birmingham into the game, although we still had our chances. A late equaliser made it 1-1, leaving Swansea feeling they had dropped 2 points.

Chris Davies took over Birmingham in 2024 and has them playing a similar style of football to Swansea, focusing heavily on the press — they were one of the better pressing teams in the Championship last season. They also tend to control possession, averaging the 7th highest possession percentage last season, just 0.8% behind Swansea. That said, Birmingham tended to go long frequently last year, and there is room for improvement in how they build out from the back.

How Matos will approach this game is interesting. Our press can be very effective against Birmingham, but the big challenge will be controlling the ball ourselves. Last year we played Crawley Town in our opening EFL Cup fixture and still fielded a fairly strong eleven; I think both Davies and Matos will treat this similarly — a genuine test, with near-full-strength sides.

But this game carries more historic weight than that.

In 2011, Birmingham won their second-ever EFL Cup, defeating Arsenal in the final. Only two years later, Swansea became the first non-English side to win the tournament. Since then, no club of similar stature has won the trophy, and since Southampton's final appearance in 2017, none has even reached it. The competition has become the domain of the Premier League's economic powerhouses — nearly a decade and a half of expected winners. The financial gap keeps growing, and I would be shocked to see a team of similar stature to Swansea and Birmingham lift the cup again.

Swansea City vs Birmingham City in the EFL Cup — the last two clubs to win the tournament as genuine underdogs. And fittingly, both are now in the Championship, no longer in the Premier League spotlight. Those Cup wins will stay with their supporters forever, a dying breed of underdog story in British football.

See you on Saturday.

⚽️ Breaking : Ross Stewart is reported as being close to signing for Swansea City. As we reported last week the club were always going to get a player in before clubs try to ransack the Swans coffers if Zān Vipotnik left and there was no replacement. That now seems to be moving forwards. The Southampton striker has an exceptionally poor injury record and this is a big gamble if Zān moves on.

Ross now thirty did play in this years World Cup for Scotland and hasn’t had any real injury concerns for eight months. We understand there is still a little way to go but the club want a medical completed by Thursday once more details are agreed and confirmed.Ross is on a free and will command a large signing on fee and salary. Chances of this now 8/10.

Vipotnik and Ronald are still being linked with a Coventry City move, more as we get it. But … John Souttar remains of interest to the Swans.