The 1996–97 Football League Cup (known as the

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 37th

Football League Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

, a knockout competition for England's top 92

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

clubs. The tournament was won by

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

, who beat

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

1–0 in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

replay at Hillsborough after finishing 1–1 at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

First round

66 of the

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and Third Division clubs competed from the First Round. Each section was divided equally into a pot of seeded clubs and a pot of unseeded clubs. Clubs' rankings depended upon their finishing position in the 1995–96 season.

First leg

Second leg

Second round

The 33 winners from the First Round joined the 15

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

clubs not participating in European competition plus the 3 non-promoted play-off teams from the First Division and the 3 relegated clubs from the

in the 1995–96 season in Round Two. First leg matches were played on the 17 and 18 September, second leg matches were played on 24 and 25 September.

First Leg

Second Leg

Third round

The 27 winners from the Second Round joined the five Premiership clubs participating in European competition in Round Three. Matches were played on 22 and 23 October.

Ties

Replays

Fourth round

Most matches were played on 26 November 27 November with two replays being played on 18 December.

Replays

Quarter-finals

The four matches were played between 8 and 29 January.

Replay

Semi-finals

The semi-final draw was made in January 1997 after the conclusion of the quarter finals. Unlike the other rounds, the semi-final ties were played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The first leg matches were played on 18 and 26 February 1997, the second leg matches were played on 11 and 12 March 1997. Leicester City went through on away goals to reach their first cup final in 28 years at the expense of Wimbledon, while Division Two underdogs

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is within ...

gave Middlesbrough a run for their money, going out by a single goal.

First leg

Second leg

''Leicester City win on away goals'' ''Middlesbrough win 2–1 on aggregate''

Final

The 1997 Coca-Cola Cup Final was played on 6 April 1997 and was contested between

and

. Leicester won 1–0 in the replay at Hillsborough on 16 April 1997. This was the last year that the Football League Cup Final was decided by a replay.

Replay

References

External links

Official Carling Cup websiteCarling Cup
at bbc.co.uk
League Cup news, match reports and pictures
on Reuters.co.uk
Results on Soccerbase
{{DEFAULTSORT:Football League Cup 1996-97 1996–97

Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...

1996–97 domestic association football cups

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