Carabao Cup and Newcastle United – Shortcut opens up to third final in four seasons | OneFootball

It has been a quite remarkable last few years for Newcastle United with the Carabao Cup.

Three seasons of the competition so far for Eddie Howe and the current owners.

In 2022/23 Newcastle United reached the Carabao Cup final at Wembley and lost to Manchester United.

In 2023/24 Newcastle United were seconds away from a second Carabao Cup final in consecutive seasons, only for bad luck and decision making to bring about a very late equaliser, then penalty shootout knockout at Stamford Bridge. On top of the Tonali suspension, the injury situation had become truly horrendous by mid-December 2023.

No matter, as 2024/25 saw Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United go on a brilliant run in the Carabao Cup (League Cup) and just went and won the bloody thing!

This three year run in the competition is very impressive BUT when you consider the League Cup history of Newcastle United, it is beyond belief.

The first 34 years of the League Cup saw Newcastle United go beyond round three on only three occasions and considering almost all of those seasons apart from very early on, NUFC started off in round two, it was incredible who bad United were in this competition.

Indeed, until Eddie Howe came along, in over 60 years Newcastle United only reached the semi-final stage of the League Cup once, when losing finalists in 1976.

So in that context, to suddenly then be losing finalists, cheated out of a semi-final, then winners.

The Carabao Cup is in danger of becoming ‘wor’ cup.

It gets better.

This next 2025/26 season, Newcastle United not only don’t have to bother with the first round of the Carabao Cup, we also get a bye in the second round. As one of the European competition competitors, for some reason the stronger clubs also get this helping hand in the League Cup.

It gets better again, as I assume that Newcastle United will then also get a helping hand in round three of the Carabao Cup this time in 2025/26.

The Carabao Cup third round draw last (2024/25) season saw Man U, Liverpool, Man City, Villa, Tottenham and Arsenal all effectively seeded for the third round draw, unable to play each other.

It was explained like this…

‘Draw Conditions will be implemented for the Carabao Cup Round Three draw due to the scheduling of European competition fixtures over two exclusive midweeks in September.

Carabao Cup Round Three fixtures will take place W/C 16 & 23 September, with fixtures in the Champions League (W/C 16 September) and Europa League (W/C 23 September) also scheduled during this period. The additional dates required in the calendar for European competitions are as a result of an increased number of games for the 2024/25 season.

The Round Three draw consists of 32 Clubs – 25 winners from Round Two with the seven Premier League Clubs in UEFA competitions also entering in this round.

For the main draw, two separate bowls will be utilised:

Bowl 1 – consisting of the six UCL and UEL Clubs

Bowl 2 – consisting of the remaining 26 Clubs

A pre-draw will take place prior to Nottingham Forest’s Round Two fixture against Newcastle United on Wednesday 28 August, live on Sky Sports, to determine the Home/Away positioning of the six clubs in Bowl 1 for the first six ties of the main draw.

The main draw will be conducted following the conclusion of the game at the City Ground – also live on Sky Sports. The first six ties will be drawn by alternating between one club from Bowl 1 and one club from Bowl 2, with the Home/Away positioning of the club from Bowl 1 already pre-determined in the earlier draw.

Once the six clubs from Bowl 1 have been drawn, the remaining ten ties will be drawn from Bowl 2 only. From this round of the competition, the draw is no longer split into northern and southern sections.’

The outcome of that was a Carabao Cup third round draw that saw Man U, Liverpool, Man City, Villa, Tottenham and Arsenal drawn against Barnsley, West Ham, Watford, Wycombe, Coventry and Bolton.

To nobody’s great surprise, this further helping hand for Champions League and Europa League competing teams, saw all six of them make it through round three and into the last sixteen.

I have looked around but no details of what will happen this time when it comes to the 2025/26 Carabao Cup third round draw BUT fair to assume it will be same again.

The same demands are there when it comes to scheduling and domestic/European commitments, due to the expanded Champions League and Europa League, so for a place in the last sixteen, it appears Newcastle United won’t be able to draw any of Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea, Aston Villa or Crystal Palace.

Every chance then of a very kind draw and winnable match for Newcastle United in the third round which could/would take them into the last 16, which would mean only two wins away from another two-legged Carabao Cup semi-final.

When you compare that to the FA Cup, you come to see why the Carabao Cup could be far more achievable (again!) for Newcastle United than the other domestic competition.

In the Carabao Cup, to get to the semi-final having to win only two matches in free draws (plus the seeded third round, where NUFC can’t play any of the top teams).

In the FA Cup, to get to the semi-final having to win four matches (3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th rounds), all of them free draws where you can draw anybody.

Newcastle United won the 2024/25 Carabao Cup despite cruel luck in the draws, winning four matches against clubs that ended up finishing top four in the Premier League, as well as Forest who finished seventh.

I wouldn’t be booking your Wembley hotel just yet BUT this all explains why year after year we have so often seen the same small group of top clubs invariably contest the Carabao Cup final.

In terms of when things will happen in the 2025/26 Carabao Cup, only very limited details confirmed so far.

The Carabao Cup Round One Draw will take place on Thursday 26 June 2025, then the Carabao Cup Round One matches will be played week commencing 11 August 2025.

The only other detail known for sure is when the Carabao Cup Final will be.

The (League Cup) Carabao Cup Final was usually end of February but Newcastle United defeated Liverpool on Sunday 16 March 2025, now it is stretching further away from the late February slot, as next season Wembley will host the final on Sunday 22 March 2026.