Preston North End knocked Huddersfield Town out of the Carabao Cup on penalties at Goodison Park, winning a shootout that had no business going the distance after Lewis Gibson's 21st-minute red card left Preston to play more than an hour with ten men.

The Carabao Cup — English football's second-tier knockout competition, open to all 92 Premier League and EFL clubs — staged its first round across the weekend of 7–9 August 2026. Preston's tie against Huddersfield was relocated to Everton's Goodison Park because the Deepdale pitch was not ready for the new season (The Guardian). A 3pm Saturday kickoff in a borrowed stadium gave the match an odd, drifting atmosphere — and then the football delivered.

Radinio Balker headed Huddersfield in front, and when Gibson saw red shortly after, the visitors from West Yorkshire had a man advantage and a lead. They held both for 69 minutes. In stoppage time, Jusef Erabi equalised to make it 1-1, dragging a one-sided second half into a shootout nobody in a half-empty Goodison expected.

There, Preston goalkeeper Daniel Iversen saved two penalties. Huddersfield's Matty Young did his part, turning away Andrew Moran's spot-kick, but Delano Burgzorg stepped up to convert the winner and send Preston through (The Guardian). For a club playing a home tie 30 miles away from home, it was a strange night to remember.

Down at Loftus Road, Millwall's Lukas Jensen produced an even more remarkable shootout performance. QPR and Millwall drew 1-1 after 90 minutes — Luke Cundle's second-half opener for Millwall cancelled out by a late own goal from Mark Sykes — and then Jensen took over. He saved all four QPR penalties: Ilias Chair, Harvey Vale, Koki Saito, and Kwame Poku, each one turned away in succession. Millwall won the shootout 2-0 without ever needing a fifth taker (The Guardian).

Four penalties faced, four saved. That is the kind of night a goalkeeper files away forever, and the kind that leaves an opposition dressing room staring at the floor.

Elsewhere in the first round, Cambridge United came from behind to beat Barnet 2-1. Kabongo Tshimanga had given the non-league side — Barnet play in the National League, the fifth tier — a lead that Cambridge overturned through Ben Knight and debutant Isaac Heath, whose first senior goal settled it (The Guardian).

What makes these early Cup nights worth following is precisely their unpredictability. A relocated fixture at a Premier League ground, a ten-man rescue act, a goalkeeper who saves four in a row, a debut goal — the Carabao Cup's first round rarely commands the spotlight, but it delivers moments that stick. Round Two follows in the week commencing 24 August.