2017–18 EFL Cup

Did You Know?

• The first round involved 70 clubs: 24 from League Two, 24 from League One, and 22 from the Championship.
• The third round had 32 clubs: seven that entered at that stage and 25 winners from the second round.

Access

All 92 clubs from the top four divisions of English football participated. In the first round, all League Two and League One clubs entered alongside 22 of the 24 Championship teams; Hull City and Middlesbrough received byes as the highest finishing relegated teams from the 2016–17 Premier League. Premier League clubs not involved in European competition entered in the second round. Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur received byes to the third round due to their participation in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The first-round draw was held in Bangkok, Thailand, as part of the sponsorship deal with Carabao. Plans to trial video assistant referees in the competition were scrapped and instead trialled in the 2017–18 FA Cup from the third round.

Second round

Fifty clubs played in the second round: 15 that entered at this stage and 35 winners from the first round. The 15 entrants were the 13 Premier League clubs not involved in European competition plus the two Championship clubs that finished 18th and 19th in the 2016–17 Premier League. The draw, held on 10 August 2017, was split into northern and southern sections, with teams drawn against opponents from the same section.

Semi-finals

Four clubs, all quarter-final winners, contested the semi-finals. The draw took place on 20 December at Ashton Gate immediately after Bristol City eliminated defending champions Manchester United in the fifth round. The semi-finals were played over two legs, with aggregate score deciding the winner. If level after 90 minutes in the second leg, two 15-minute periods of extra time were played; if still level, the away goals rule applied, followed by a penalty shoot-out if necessary. The lowest-ranked side to reach this stage was Championship club Bristol City.

Controversies regarding draws

The first-round draw, streamed live from Thailand, had sound problems that forced viewers to rely on graphics, which contained errors: Charlton Athletic appeared in two ties, and AFC Wimbledon, Brentford, Swindon Town, Norwich City, Forest Green Rovers, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Yeovil Town were shown with incorrect draws. The English Football League apologised, stating the draw was not compromised. In the second-round draw, four televised matches were announced with the wrong location. The third-round draw was scheduled for Beijing at 11:15 China Standard Time (04:15 British Summer Time), drawing further criticism. The fifth-round draw was delayed over an hour due to technical problems at Twitter, eventually appearing in a pre-recorded video almost two hours late.