Watford coach Vladimir Ivic has described Daniel Bachmann as "the future of Watford FC" after his penalty heroics against Oxford United.

The Hornets progressed to the third round of the Carabao Cup following a penalty shootout in which Bachmann saved all three of United's penalties to set up a trip to Rodney Parade to face Newport County next week.

After the game, Ivic said his goalkeeper had been fantastic throughout the fixture and deserved praise for more than his contribution to the shootout.

"Dan is a fantastic keeper and a good character," he said. "For me it's a pleasure to work with him and I know his quality, he's showed me during this one and a half month and he's showed today that he's the future of Watford FC.

"He's played all the game fantastic. I don't speak about the penalty, I don't need to speak about that to tell something, but during the game he saved, for sure, three or four goals. He needs to work hard and we have a lot of games and he will play."

Watford missed a number of big chances throughout the game and it looked as if they were going to slip out of the competition, as Rob Hall's first-half strike divided the two teams until the final minute of normal time before Ken Sema's equaliser set up the shootout.

Ivic said it was normal for his players to be a bit rusty following their lengthy break from the sport and that they will get back to their best after putting in the effort on the training ground.

"It's something that we expect," he said. "Normally we want to score and the players want to score, but after long periods out the game, some of them playing for the first time in six or seven months. Their last games were in February.

"[Jerome] Sinclair, I don't know exactly when he played his last game. Navarro, he's played after a long period. Those two, plus the three younger guys, we came here to give a chance to some of them to see them, to show their quality, but we know that it was not easy after this period in the first game to show everything.

"We have to work a lot, we have to improve them day-by-day and wait for them to show us their quality and their 100 per cent to help the team to do the job."