2009–10 Football League Cup
| Carling Cup, League Cup | |||
The logo of the 2009–10 League Cup
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| Country |
 England
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|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | 92 | ||
| Champions | Manchester United | ||
| Runners-up | Aston Villa | ||
| Matches played | 93 | ||
| Goals scored | 304 (3.27 per match) | ||
| Top goal scorer(s) | Carlos Tevez (6 goals) | ||
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The 2009–10 Football League Cup, known as the Carling Cup due to the competition's sponsorship by lager brand Carling, was the 50th season of the Football League Cup, a knock-out competition for England's top 92 football clubs.Manchester United successfully defended their Football League Cup title after defeating Aston Villa by 2–1 in the final at Wembley Stadium on 28 February 2010.
Each season, the League Cup winners – like the winners of the FA Cup – are granted a place in the UEFA Europa League for the following season. However, in cases where a team has already gained a place in European competition via their league position or progress in other cup competitions, their place in the Europa League is deferred to the next-placed league side. In this season, since Manchester United and FA Cup winners Chelsea qualified for the UEFA Champions League via the Premier League, Aston Villa and Liverpool qualified for the Europa League as the sixth- and seventh-placed sides in the league.
The draw for the First Round took place on 16 June 2009, with matches played two months later in the week beginning 10 August 2009.
Newcastle United and Middlesbrough received a first round bye as the highest ranked Football League teams from the previous season's league placings. The other 70 of the 72 Football League clubs competed in the First Round, 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 2008–09 season.
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