The 1998–99 Football League Cup (known as the Worthington Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 39th staging of the

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 1998, and ended with the final on 21 March 1999, 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

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

, who beat

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

1–0 in the final, thanks to an

Allan Nielsen Allan Nielsen (; born 13 March 1971) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. His most notable period of football was four years at English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur with whom he won the 1999 League Cu ...

goal in the last minute of normal time.

First round

The 72

First First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

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 1997–98 season. ¹ Team at home in the 1st leg is denoted as the home team

Second round

The 36 winners from the First Round joined the 12

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 in Round Two. First leg matches were played on 15 and 16 September, second leg matches were played on 22 and 23 September. ¹ Team at home in the 1st leg is denoted as the home team

Third round

The 24 winners from the Second Round joined the 8 Premiership clubs participating in European competition in Round Three. Matches were played on 27 and 28 October.

Fourth round

Matches were played on 10 and 11 November. ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Quarter-finals

The four matches were played on 1, and 2 December. ---- ---- ----

Semi-finals

The semi-final draw was made in December 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 26 and 27 January 1999, the second leg matches were played on 16 and 17 February 1999. It was a narrow victory for Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City at the expense of Wimbledon and Sunderland, respectively, giving Tottenham the first chance of their major trophy–and place in Europe–for eight years, while Leicester had reached their second final in three seasons.

First leg

----

Second leg

''Tottenham Hotspur win 1-0 on aggregate'' ---- ''Leicester City win 3-2 on aggregate''

Final

The 1999 Worthington Cup Final was played on 21 March 1999 and was contested between

and

. Tottenham won the match 1–0 thanks to a last minute

header.

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:1998-99 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 ...