2008–09 Football League Cup
| Carling Cup, League Cup | |||
The logo of the 2008–09 League Cup
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| Country | England Wales |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | 92 | ||
| Defending champions | Tottenham Hotspur | ||
| Champions | Manchester United | ||
| Runners-up | Tottenham Hotspur | ||
| Matches played | 93 | ||
| Goals scored | 290 (3.12 per match) | ||
| Top goal scorer(s) |
Nathan Ellington Roman Pavlyuchenko Carlos Tevez (6 goals) |
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The 2008–09 Football League Cup, known as the Carling Cup due to the competition's sponsorship by lager brand Carling, was the 49th season of the Football League Cup, a knockout competition for England's top 92 football clubs. The winners qualified for the third qualifying round of the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League, if not already qualified for European competition.
Manchester United won the competition by defeating defending champions Tottenham Hotspur on penalties in the final on 1 March 2009.
The draw for the First Round took place on 13 June 2008, with matches being played two months later in the week beginning 11 August 2008.
The 72 Football League clubs competed from the First Round, which was divided into North and South sections. Each section was divided equally into a pot of seeded clubs and a pot of unseeded clubs. Clubs' rankings depend upon their finishing position in the 2007–08 season.
Twelve Premier League teams – including the eleven that were not involved in European competitions – entered at this stage, along with the winners from the First Round. The draw for the Second Round took place on 13 August 2008, and the matches were played in the week beginning 25 August 2008, with the exception of Manchester City's game against Brighton & Hove Albion, which was played on 24 September.
1 Score after 90 minutes
Eight teams involved in European competition entered at this stage along with the winners from the Second Round. Since nine English teams qualified for European competition in 2008, it was initially unclear precisely which eight teams would automatically enter the third round. Either Aston Villa, who had entered into European competition via the UEFA Intertoto Cup, or Manchester City, who qualified for the UEFA Cup via the UEFA Fair Play ranking would enter in the Third Round with the other entering in the Second Round instead. On 29 July 2008, it was announced that Aston Villa would enter the 2008–09 Carling Cup at the Third Round stage after reaching the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup.
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