Wrexham’s Carabao Cup hopes are over for another year after a 1-0 defeat to Middlesbrough, as summer signing Will Lankshear sent Boro through to the second round with a spectacular scissor kick volley just after the hour.Here The Athletic picks out the main talking points.Why is the first game of the season in the Carabao Cup?Normally the Championship season begins with a league fixture but the EFL agreed to a collective pitch from the 72 clubs for a switch to the opening weekend.That might seem odd to the modern day football fan, but there is a precedent. For five consecutive years from 1976 onwards, the League Cup was the curtain raiser to a new campaign, the two-legged first round being completed before attention turned to the league.Wrexham clearly enjoyed the set-up, progressing in four of those five campaigns with only Burnley in 1980-81 getting the better of the Welsh club. There was, though, to be no repeat of those 1970s successes in a tie that underlined why more additions are needed if last season’s seventh place finish is to be improved on.Wrexham performed well in the first half, contributing fully to an entertaining affair that saw chances go begging at either end. However, as Boro stepped up a gear after the break, the visitors just didn’t have enough in the tank.Will Lankshear scores a spectacular winner for Boro (Stu Forster/Getty Images)While Phil Parkinson had said the fixture should be treated as the final game of Wrexham’s pre-season — the short turnaround since landing back in the UK on Monday from the club’s U.S. tour his justification — the defeat shone a light on the holes in the squad.Parkinson said that Liberato Cacace, who started just eight Championship games in an injury-hit 2025-26, was absent at the Riverside after feeling “a bit of fatigue in his calves” following last weekend’s 1-0 tour defeat to Sunderland. His absence reinforced the need for more options out wide.The New Zealand international is not expected to face Wigan Athletic on Monday in a behind-closed-doors friendly designed to put vital minutes in legs before the Championship opener at Cardiff City on August 17. Josh Windass and Ben Sheaf, missing again at Middlesbrough, will also sit out that friendly.