Thomas Frank will hand Mikkel Damsgaard his first start when Brentford travel to Colchester United in the EFL Cup on Tuesday evening.

The Danish midfielder, who scored a stunning free-kick against England in the semi-final of Euro 2020, will figure for the first time in a Bees shirt, having been an unused substitute in the 4-0 win over Manchester United.

The 22-year-old joined from Sampdoria in the summer and looks to be another shrewd addition to Frank’s squad, having previously been courted by some of the biggest clubs in Europe.

Having never reached the last eight of the competition in the club’s history prior to Frank’s arrival, Brentford are now looking to advance to that stage for a third consecutive season.

"He [Damsgaard] will start, so we’re looking forward to that," Frank told the club website. "That’s part of a bigger plan for him. 

 

"Obviously we will make some changes but we will put a very strong team out there. I think it's very clear how serious we've been [in this competition] over the last two years.  

"Maybe the two most important years in the club's recent history - the promotion season in a very tight COVID schedule and the first season in the Premier League - we made history by reaching the semi-final in the first year and then the quarter-final [the season after] is the next best.  

"That shows how serious we are about this competition and we want to do very well."

Tuesday’s opponents Colchester have enjoyed a difficult start to the new campaign, having won only one of their five League Two matches.

They did, however, beat current League One leaders Ipswich Town 1-0 in the opening round of the EFL Cup and boast Premier League experience in their ranks, in the form of West Ham United old boys Freddie Sears and Frank Nouble.

And with no fresh injury concerns, Frank has vowed to name a strong side for the trip down the A12. 

"The thing you need to look into is how you make sure that your team perform in every competition - the Premier League, the EFL Cup, and the FA Cup," said Frank.

"It's a combination of freshness, putting the best possible team out there, and putting some players out who need minutes to perform, but the end goal is to get to the next round. 

"I could easily choose the first XI, but I don't think that will benefit us in the other competitions.

"But by putting a very strong team out there, and hopefully it's enough to beat Colchester, I think we tried to put our money out on both competitions."

The pair’s last meeting came in 2014 when Colchester ran out 4-1 winners at the JobServe Community Stadium, the same venue for the two sides' latest duel, though the London side, then under the stewardship of Mark Warburton, had already secured promotion to the Championship.

 

Perhaps a better marker of how Brentford might fare this evening is last year's second-round encounter. They trailed 1-0 to eventual League Two winners Forest Green Rovers before three goals in the final half an hour secured a 3-1 victory. 

Frank expects a similarly tough game against another fourth-division side in Colchester, who produced cup heroics of their own in 2019, beating Crystal Palace and Tottenham Hotspur on their way to only their second-ever quarter-final appearance. 

"We expect everything we saw from Forest Green last year. We expected it when they came and they did very well," Frank said.

“I expect a very tough cup tie against Colchester; a team that plays relatively direct, will focus a lot on the second balls, and try to play behind us. That aspect is what we need to handle well. 

"I expect us to dominate the game, but we just watched the Ipswich game back against them [in the last round], where they dominated the game and lost 1-0. That's cup football. 

"We're looking forward to the challenge."