Football League Cup 2007-08.html



The Carling Cup 2007–08 was the 48th staging of the Football League Cup, a knockout competition for England's top 92 football clubs. The competition name reflects a sponsorship deal with lager brand Carling.

The competition began on 13 August 2007, and ended with the final on 24 February 2008. Wembley Stadium in London hosted the final match for the first time since 2000.

The tournament was won by Tottenham Hotspur, who beat holders Chelsea 2–1 in the final, thanks to goals from Dimitar Berbatov and Jonathan Woodgate. Didier Drogba scored the opener for Chelsea.

First Round

The 72 Football League clubs compete from the First Round, which is divided into North and South sections. Each section is divided equally into a pot of seeded clubs and a pot of unseeded clubs. Clubs' rankings depend upon their finishing position in the 2006–07 season. Therefore, the clubs relegated from the Premier League in 2007; Watford, Charlton Athletic (south) and Sheffield United (north) are the top seeds, and the clubs newly-promoted to the Football League, Morecambe and Dagenham & Redbridge, are bottom seeds in north and south sections respectively.

• On 13 June 2007 seeded clubs and unseeded clubs were paired off to create the first round draw.
• Matches occurred during the week commencing 13 August 2007.
• Extra time played when the scores were level after 90 minutes.

¹ Score after 90 minutes

Second Round

The 36 winners from the First Round joined the 12 Premier League clubs not participating in European competition in Round Two.

• Round two was drawn on 16 August.
• Matches occurred during the week commencing 28 August.
• Extra time played when the scores were level after 90 minutes.

¹ Score after 90 minutes
² As Nottingham Forest were leading 1-0 at the time of the abandonment of the first meeting, they were given a "free goal" by Leicester City, who allowed Forest keeper Paul Smith to dribble up the pitch uncontested and score straight from the kick-off.¹

Third Round

The 24 winners from the Second Round joined the eight Premier League clubs participating in European competition in Round Three. The draw was made on 1 September.² Matches were played on 25 September and 26 September.

¹ Score after 90 minutes

Fourth Round

The draw for the Fourth Round was made on 29 September 2007 and matches were played in the week commencing 29 October.

¹ Score after 90 minutes

Fifth Round

The draw for the Fifth Round was made on 3 November 2007. Matches were played in the week beginning 17 December 2007, with the exception of the match between West Ham United and Everton, which was played on 12 December due to Everton's European commitments.

2007-12-12 19:45	West Ham United	1 – 2	Everton	Boleyn Ground, London Attendance: 28,777 Referee: Mark Halsey (Lancashire)
	Cole  12'		Osman  40' Yakubu  88'

2007-12-18 19:45	Manchester City	0 – 2	Tottenham Hotspur	City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester Attendance: 38,564 Referee: Steve Bennett (Kent)
			Defoe  5' Malbranque  82'

2007-12-19 19:45	Chelsea	2 – 0	Liverpool	Stamford Bridge, London Attendance: 41,366 Referee: Martin Atkinson (West Yorkshire)
	Lampard  59' Shevchenko  90'

2007-12-18 20:00	Blackburn Rovers	2 – 3 (a.e.t.)	Arsenal	Ewood Park, Blackburn Attendance: 16,207 Referee: Mike Riley (West Yorkshire)
	Santa Cruz  42'  60'		Diaby  6' Eduardo  29'  104'

Semi-finals

The semi-final draw was made on 19 December 2007 at 22:00 GMT. Unlike the other rounds, the semi-final ties were played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The ties were played in the weeks beginning 9 January and 21 January 2008.

First leg

2008-01-08 19:45	Chelsea	2 – 1	Everton	Stamford Bridge, London Attendance: 41,178 Referee: Peter Walton (Northamptonshire)
	Wright-Phillips  26' Lescott  90+2' (o.g.)		Yakubu  64'

2008-01-09 19:45	Arsenal	1 – 1	Tottenham Hotspur	Emirates Stadium, London Attendance: 53,136 Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral)
	Walcott  79'		Jenas  37'

Second leg

2008-01-23 20:00	Everton	0 – 1	Chelsea	Goodison Park, Liverpool Attendance: 37,086 Referee: Steve Bennett (Kent)
			J. Cole  69'

Chelsea win 3–1 on aggregate

2008-01-22 20:00	Tottenham Hotspur	5 – 1	Arsenal	White Hart Lane, London Attendance: 35,979 Referee: Howard Webb (Sheffield & Hallamshire)
	Jenas  3' Bendtner  27' (o.g.) Keane  48' Lennon  60' Malbranque  90+4'		Adebayor  70'

Tottenham win 6–2 on aggregate

Final

For more details on this match, see 2008 Football League Cup Final.

The 2008 Carling Cup Final was played on 24 February 2008 and was the first League Cup Final to be played at Wembley Stadium since 2000.

2008-02-24 15:00	Chelsea	1 – 2 (a.e.t.)	Tottenham Hotspur	Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 87,660 Referee: Mark Halsey (Lancashire)
	Drogba  39'	(Report)	Berbatov  70' (pen.) Woodgate  94'

References

External links

• Official Carling Cup website
• Carling Cup at bbc.co.uk
• League Cup news, match reports and pictures on Reuters.co.uk