Manchester City will be hoping to finally reclaim the Carabao Cup in the 2024/25 season.
The 2024/25 season is in full swing with Manchester City enjoying a fantastic start with back-to-back wins over Chelsea and Ipswich Town as they begin their Premier League title defence in style.
While it’s still one game a week at the moment, City’s fixtures will soon start coming thick and fast once more as the relentless grind picks up the pace.
Pep Guardiola, in what could be his last season at City, will be aiming to win as many trophies as possible and that begins with the Carabao Cup.
The tournament is now into the fourth round and City are in the hat after defeating Watford 2-1 in their first game.
However, there are some changes to this year’s League Cup and here is everything you need to know about the 2024/25 edition of the tournament.
Carabao Cup 2024/25 changes
With the fixture list increasing once again this season as UEFA expand their competitions, the Carabao Cup has been forced to make adjustments to fit in.
Instead of being played over a single midweek as usual, the third round will instead take place over two sets of midweek fixtures to accommodate the teams competing in Europe.
As a result, the third round draw will be held over two stages, with the first involving City.
Carabao Cup third-round draw explained
The first part of the draw concerns the six English teams competing in the Champions League and Europa League in the 2024/25 season.
City will compete in the revamped Champions League and find out their eight league phase opponents on Thursday, along with Arsenal, Liverpool and Aston Villa.
Manchester United and Tottenham, meanwhile, are in the Europa League.
Those six clubs will be placed in bowl one for the draw and can not face one another in the third round.
Then the six teams will be drawn out to determine whether they are the home or away side in their respective ties.
The remaining 26 teams are placed into bowl two and six names will be drawn out of the hat to face one of the six seeded European sides.
Though Chelsea are also in Europe, competing in the Europa Conference League, they are still between legs in their qualifier so have not been included with the other six.
In the second stage of the draw, the remaining 20 teams in bowl two will be drawn out as normal to set up the remaining 10 ties in the round.
Man City Carabao Cup results
- Manchester City 2-1 Watford – September 24, 2024
- Tottenham 2-1 Manchester City – October 30, 2024
Who do Man City play in the Carabao Cup fourth round?
Manchester City have been drawn away to Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the Carabao Cup fourth round. It’s a tough tie for the Blues who only managed to get their first win at Tottenham’s new stadium at the end of last season.
The tie will be played on the week commencing October 28.
Carabao Cup schedule
- Round Three: 18 & 25 September
- Round Four: 29 & 30 October
- Quarter-Final: 17 & 18 December
- Semi-Final: 8 January (first leg) & 5 February (second leg)
- Final: 16 March
Where is the Carabao Cup final?
As ever, the Carabao Cup final will be held at the home of English football, Wembley Stadium. This season, the final will be held at a slightly later date of March 16.
What do the Carabao Cup winners get?
As City are well aware, winning the tournament doesn’t only get you the League Cup trophy but can also give teams a massive boost for the rest of the season to come. Winning a piece of silverware early on can grow confidence and inspire teams to go on and claim more trophies in May.
It’s a good thing, too, given the prize money on offer for winning the cup is a relative pittance. Last year’s winners took home just £100,000 in winnings.
When did Man City last win the Carabao Cup?
City are one of the most successful teams in the history of the League Cup, having won the competition eight times. They first won it in 1970 and would go on to claim it six times in seven years between 2014 and 2021.
However, they haven’t won the Carabao Cup since defeating Tottenham 1-0 in the final nearly four years ago.
