Carabao Cup: Crystal Palace and Millwall renew rivalry to be ‘first in south London’

The most recent meeting between these sides was remembered for all the wrong reasons.

Millwall goalkeeper Liam Roberts was sent off after eight minutes for a head-height challenge on Jean-Philippe Mateta that left the Palace striker requiring 25 stitches.

Eagles chairman Steve Parish called the tackle “the most reckless challenge on a football field” he had ever seen when speaking to BBC One at half-time of the FA Cup fifth-round match in March.

The Premier League side went on to win the game 3-1, ticking off the third step on their way to an historic first FA Cup win.

Roberts’ automatic three-match ban was extended to six games and Millwall put out a statement in defence of their player after he received online abuse despite Mateta publicly accepting his apology.

The Lions were also subsequently fined £15,000 for homophobic chants aimed at Ben Chilwell, who was playing in the Palace team while on loan from Chelsea.

It was Roberts’ final appearance for Millwall and he joined Mansfield Town in the summer.

“Roberts’ challenge was very ill-judged, but there was no intent,” says Achtung! Millwall p, externalodcast, external host Nick Hart.

“The whole media, FA and Palace furore came down hard on a decent player, who went out of his way to make amends to Mateta.

“And fair play to JP Mateta, he accepted Roberts’ apology as being ‘football’. No malice.

“It is no coincidence that Liam felt obliged to leave Millwall in the wake of his personal and familial online haranguing.”

Hart added: “I think the travelling Lions fans will be reminding Parish of all of these points on Tuesday.”