The 2011–12 Football League Cup (known as the Carling Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 52nd season 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 knock-out competition for the 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 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 ...

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. The team compete in the ...

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

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

in the Third Round.

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, 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 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 ...

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

between finalists

and Cardiff City. 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 broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

and the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. 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 +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 **Brit ...

). Times from the quarter-finals onwards are GMT ( UTC±0).'' 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 and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

through the Fair Play league, newly promoted

AFC Wimbledon AFC Wimbledon is an English professional association football club based in Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton, London. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in ...

and

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1896 as Crawley Foo ...

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 fixtures at

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

, Charlton Athletic and Crystal Palace were called off on safety grounds. The ties at

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded in 1894, the club competed in the Southern League and Western L ...

and Bristol Rovers 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 since 1994 between

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

and rivals

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football, football club in Nottingham, England, which competes in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of Football in England, English football, following promotion and relegation, promotion ...

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

Northern section

Southern section

Second round

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

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 ...

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 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 mostly ...

, Chelsea,

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

, Stoke City and

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 ...

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

Aldershot Town Aldershot Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. The club was founded in the spr ...

and Shrewsbury Town. 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.

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.

Quarter-finals

The draw for the quarter-finals took place on 29 October 2011. Cardiff City and Crystal Palace 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 sys ...

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 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 (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play 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 if the game is required t ...

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

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

Top scorers

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2011-12 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 ...