The 1997–98 Football League Cup (known as the

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 38th

Football League Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

, a knockout competition for England's top 92

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

clubs. The competition began on 11 August 1997, and ended with the final on 29 March 1998, held at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

. The tournament was won by Chelsea, who beat

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

2–0 in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

First round

The 70 First,

Second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

and Third Division clubs compete from the First Round. 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 1996–97 season. ¹ Team at home in the 1st leg is denoted as the home team

Second round

The 35 winners from the First Round joined the 13

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

clubs not participating in European competition and Middlesbrough and Sunderland who were relegated from the Premier League last season. First leg matches were played on 16 and 17 September, second leg matches were played on 23 and 24 September with one match played on 29 September, seven on 30 September and five on 1 October. ¹ Team at home in the 1st leg is denoted as the home team

Third round

The 25 winners from the Second Round joined the seven Premiership clubs participating in European competition in Round Three. Matches were played on 14 and 15 October.

Fourth round

Matches were played on 18 and 19 November. ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Quarter-finals

The four matches were played on 6 and 7 January. ---- ---- ----

Semi-finals

The semi-final draw was made in January 1998 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 27 and 28 January 1998, the second leg matches were played on 18 February 1998. Arsenal's hopes of a unique domestic treble were ended by London rivals Chelsea, while Liverpool suffered a surprise exit at the hands of Middlesbrough.

First leg

----

Second leg

''Middlesbrough win 3-2 on aggregate'' ---- ''Chelsea win 4-3 on aggregate''

Final

The 1998 Coca-Cola Cup Final was played on 29 March 1998 and was contested between Chelsea and

. Chelsea won the final 2–0 in extra time thanks to goals from Frank Sinclair and

Roberto Di Matteo Roberto Di Matteo (; born 29 May 1970) is an Italian professional football manager and former player. A midfielder, he played for Swiss clubs Schaffhausen, Zürich and Aarau early in his career. After winning the Swiss league title with Aarau i ...

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:1997-98 Football League Cup EFL Cup seasons League Cup

Cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...