The 2011–12 Football League Cup (known as the Carling Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 52nd season of the

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 t ...

, a knock-out competition for the 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 ...

clubs played in

English football league system The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with five teams from Wales, one from Guernsey, one from Jersey and one from the Isl ...

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

were the defending champions, but were knocked out 2–0 by

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

in the Third Round.

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

, the winner of the competition, qualified for the third qualifying round of the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League. 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 con ...

was held on 26 February 2012, and was contested 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 ...

between finalists

and

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

. Cardiff were the first team outside the Premier League to appear in a League Cup final since 2001. It was Liverpool's first appearance at the new Wembley. Liverpool won the final 3–2 on penalties, claiming a record eighth League Cup, after the score was 2–2 after extra time.

Background

Broadcasting rights

The broadcasting rights for the 2011–12 Cup in the UK were shared between

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

and the BBC. Sky Sports had rights to broadcast two live matches from each round while the BBC showed match highlights online and on a special League Cup highlights show which was broadcast in the late evening on BBC One. The BBC showed two legs of the semi-final fixtures and Sky Sports showed the other two. Both BBC and Sky Sports simulcasted the final on 26 February 2012.

Preliminary round

''Times up to and including the fourth round are BST (

UTC+1 UTC+01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time *West Africa Time *Western European Summer Time **B ...

). Times from the quarter-finals onwards are GMT (

UTC±0 UTC+00:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +00:00. In ISO 8601, an example of the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+00:00. It is also known by the following geographical or historical names: *Greenwich Mean ...

).'' Due to newly relegated (and League Cup title holders)

having a bye to the third round following qualification to the Europa League and the extra Europa League berth awarded to

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandswor ...

through the Fair Play league, newly promoted

AFC Wimbledon AFC Wimbledon is an English professional football club, based in Merton, London, that plays in the EFL League Two, after being relegated from the EFL League One following the 2021–22 season. The club's home stadium is Plough Lane. The ...

and Crawley Town played each other in a preliminary round. The draw for the round took place on 13 June with Crawley Town at home. This was the first need for a Preliminary Round since the 2002–03 season.

First round

The draw for the first round took place on 16 June 2011 at 10:00 BST. The First Round took place in the week commencing 8 August 2011. Rioting in London caused three matches to be postponed on the advice of the

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

. The fixtures at West Ham United,

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

and

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

were called off on safety grounds. The ties at

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

and

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been ...

were called off later after the disorder spread across England. The round was also notable, from a footballing perspective, for the first competitive

Nottingham derby The Nottingham derby is the name given to football matches contested between Nottingham Forest and Notts County. History The two clubs are amongst the oldest football clubs in the World. County were formed in 1862 and are the oldest profession ...

since 1994 between Nottingham Forest and rivals

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 25 November 1862, it is the ...

. The match ended 3–3, with Forest winning the subsequent penalty shoot-out 4–3.

Second round

The draw for the second round took place on 11 August 2011. The thirteen

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 Fo ...

teams not involved in European competition entered the competition at this stage. The second round took place in the week commencing 22 August 2011.

Third round

The draw for the third round took place on 27 August 2011. The eight

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

clubs who qualified for European competition in the 2010–11 season –

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostl ...

, Chelsea,

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

and

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

– entered the competition at this stage. Only two teams from League Two remained at this stage: Aldershot Town and

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

. The Third Round took place in the week commencing 19 September 2011.

Fourth round

The draw for the fourth round took place on 24 September 2011. Aldershot Town were the lowest ranked team remaining in the competition and the only team representing League Two at this stage. No teams from League One remained. The Fourth Round took place in the week commencing 24 October 2011.

Fifth round

The draw for the fifth round took place on 29 October 2011.

and

of the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

were the only non-

clubs left at this stage, which also saw last season's top four Premier League clubs competing. The fifth round matches took place in the week commencing 28 November 2011.

Semi-finals

The draw for the semi-finals took place on 30 November 2011. Unlike the rest of the tournament, the semi-finals are played over two legs, with the

aggregate Aggregate or aggregates may refer to: Computing and mathematics * collection of objects that are bound together by a root entity, otherwise known as an aggregate root. The aggregate root guarantees the consistency of changes being made within the ...

score after the second leg determining the winners. In the event of the aggregate scores being level after the second legs, 30 minutes of

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only ...

will be played, with the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

applied. The first legs took place in the week commencing 9 January 2012, with the second legs a fortnight later in the week commencing 23 January 2012.

First leg

Second leg

''Cardiff City won 3–1 on penalties.'' ''Liverpool won 3–2 on aggregate''

Final

The final was played on 26 February 2012 at

. The final involved one team from the

, and one from the

. The game was won by Liverpool after a penalty shoot-out.

Top scorers

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Football League Cup, 2011-12 2011-12 2011–12 domestic association football cups Lea

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, cl ...