2024–25 EFL Cup

2024–25 EFL Cup

Carabao Cup
Wembley Stadium hosted the final
Tournament details
Country	England Wales
Dates	13 August 2024 – 16 March 2025[1]
Teams	92
Defending champions	Liverpool
← 2023–24 2025–26 →

The 2024–25 EFL Cup will be the 65th season of the EFL Cup (known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons). The competition is open to all clubs participating in the Premier League and the English Football League.

The winner of the competition qualifies for the play-off round of the 2025–26 UEFA Conference League.

Liverpool are the defending champions.

Access

All 92 clubs in the Premier League and English Football League entered the season's EFL Cup. Access was distributed across the top 4 leagues of the English football league system

In the first round, 22 of 24 Championship clubs, and all League One and League Two clubs entered.

The following round, the two remaining Championship clubs, who finished 18th and 19th in the 2023–24 Premier League season (Luton Town and Burnley), and the Premier League clubs not involved in either the Champions League, Europa League or Conference League entered.

	Clubs entering in this round	Clubs advancing from previous round	Number of games	Main date
First round (70 clubs)	24 clubs from EFL League Two 24 clubs from EFL League One 22 clubs from EFL Championship	N/A	35	w/c 12th August 2024
Second round (40 clubs)	2 clubs from EFL Championship 13 Premier League clubs (not involved in European competition)	35 winners from first round	25	w/c 26th August 2024
Third round (32 clubs)	7 Premier League clubs (involved in European competition)	25 winners from second round	16	w/c 16th September 2024 w/c 23rd September 2024
Fourth round (16 clubs)	No clubs enter the fourth round	16 winners from third round	8	w/c 28th October 2024
Quarter-finals (8 clubs)	No clubs enter the quarter-finals	8 winners from fourth round	4	w/c 16th December 2024
Semi-finals (4 clubs)	No clubs enter the semi-finals	4 winners from quarter-finals	4 (two-legged)	w/c 6th January 2025 w/c 3rd February 2025
Final (2 clubs)	No clubs enter the final	2 winners from semi-finals	1	16th March 2025

First round

A total of 70 clubs played in the first round: 24 from League Two (tier 4), 24 from League One (tier 3), and 22 from the Championship (tier 2). The draw for this round was split on a geographical basis into "northern" and "southern" sections. Teams were drawn against a team from the same section.

Northern section

Southern section

References