EFL (Carabao) Cup 2021-22 Champions, matches and scorers

EFL (Carabao) Cup 2021-22 was the 62nd season of the EFL Cup (known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons). The competition was open to all clubs participating in the Premier League and the English Football League. The winner of the competition qualifies for the play-off round of the UEFA Europa Conference League 2022–23.
The competition began on 31 July 2021, and the final was played at Wembley Stadium on 27 February 2022 between Chelsea and Liverpool, with Liverpool winning a record ninth title 11–10 on penalties following a goalless draw after extra time. Manchester City were the holders, having won the previous four editions, but they were eliminated by West Ham United on penalties in the fourth round.

Champions: Liverpool (9th title)
Runner-up: Chelsea
Top Goal Scorer: Marcus Forss and Eddie Nketiah (5 goals each)

EFL Cup (Carabao) 2021-22 Third Round matches
A total of 32 teams played in the third round. Chelsea, Leicester City, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, and West Ham United entered in this round due to their participation in either the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League, the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League, or the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League. The draw was made on 25 August 2021 live on Sky Sports after the conclusion of the second round tie between West Bromwich Albion vs Arsenal by Kevin Phillips and Kevin Campbell. Unlike the previous rounds this round was not split into northern and southern sections. Tiebreakers were decided by penalty.

Date	Team 1	Result	Team 2
21 September 2021	Burnley	4–1	Rochdale
21 September 2021	Fulham	0–0 5–6 (penalties)	Leeds United
21 September 2021	Manchester City	6–1	Wycombe Wanderers
21 September 2021	Norwich City	0–3	Liverpool
21 September 2021	Preston North End	4–1	Cheltenham Town
21 September 2021	Queens Park Rangers	2–2 8–7 (penalties)	Everton
21 September 2021	Sheffield United	2–2 2–4 (penalties)	Southampton
21 September 2021	Watford	1–3	Stoke City
21 September 2021	Wigan Athletic	0–2	Sunderland
21 September 2021	Brentford	7–0	Oldham Athletic
22 September 2021	Brighton	2–0	Swansea City
22 September 2021	Arsenal	3–0	AFC Wimbledon
22 September 2021	Chelsea	1–1 4–3 (penalties)	Aston Villa
22 September 2021	Manchester United	0–1	West Ham United
22 September 2021	Millwall	0–2	Leicester City
22 September 2021	Wolves	2–2 2–3 (penalties)	Tottenham Hotspur

EFL Cup (Carabao) 2021-22 Fourth Round matches
A total of 16 teams played in this round. The ties were played during the week commencing 25 October 2021. League One side Sunderland were the only team from the third division or lower left in the competition.

Date	Team 1	Result	Team 2
26 October 2021	Chelsea	1–1 4–3 (penalties)	Southampton
26 October 2021	Arsenal	2–0	Leeds United
26 October 2021	Queens Park Rangers	0–0 1–3 (penalties)	Sunderland
27 October 2021	Stoke City	1–2	Brentford
27 October 2021	West Ham United	0–0 5–3 (penalties)	Manchester City
27 October 2021	Leicester City	2–2 4–2 (penalties)	Brighton
27 October 2021	Burnley	0–1	Tottenham Hotspur
27 October 2021	Preston North End	0–2	Liverpool

EFL Cup (Carabao) 2021-22 Quarter Final matches
A total of eight teams played in this round. The draw was held on 30 October 2021. The ties were played during the week commencing 20 December 2021. League One side Sunderland were the only team from outside the Premier League left in the competition.

Date	Team 1	Result	Team 2
21 December 2021	Arsenal	5–1	Sunderland
22 December 2021	Brentford	0–2	Chelsea
22 December 2021	Liverpool	3–3 5–4 (penalties)	Leicester City
22 December 2021	Tottenham Hotspur	2–1	West Ham United

EFL Cup (Carabao) 2021-22 Semi Final matches
A total of four teams, all of which were from the Premier League, played in this round. The draw was held on 22 December 2021. This season saw the return of double-legged semi-finals as with the 2019–20 EFL Cup after the 2020–21 EFL Cup semi-finals were played over a single leg due to fixture congestion caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The first and second legs were originally scheduled to be played during the weeks commencing 3 January 2022 and 10 January 2022, respectively. However, on 5 January 2022, the EFL postponed the first-leg match between Arsenal and Liverpool, originally scheduled for 6 January 2022, to 13 January 2022, due to a COVID-19 outbreak among Liverpool’s players and staff. This also led to a switch to Liverpool home for the first leg, and Arsenal home for the second leg on 20 January 2022.

Team 1	Aggregate	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Chelsea	3–0	Tottenham Hotspur	2–0	1–0
Liverpool	2–0	Arsenal	0–0	2–0

EFL Cup (Carabao) 2021-22 Final match
Chelsea played Liverpool in the final, which was held on 27 February 2022. This saw the return of the EFL Cup Final to its February slot as with the 2020 EFL Cup Final, as the 2021 EFL Cup Final was played in April so that spectators could attend due to COVID-19 restrictions in England. It was played at Wembley Stadium in Wembley in the London Borough of Brent. The winner qualifies for the 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League unless they have qualified for the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League or 2022–23 UEFA Europa League.
27 February 2022 16:30 GMT, Wembley Stadium, London

Chelsea	0 – 0 (a.e.t.)	Liverpool
Alonso Lukaku Havertz James Jorginho Rüdiger Kanté Werner Thiago Silva Chalobah Arrizabalaga	Penalties 10 – 11	Milner Fabinho Van Dijk Alexander-Arnold Salah Jota Origi Robertson Elliott Konaté Kelleher

EFL Cup (Carabao) 2021-22 Top Goal Scorer List

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Marcus Forss	Brentford	5
2	Eddie Nketiah	Arsenal	5
3	Cameron Archer	Aston Villa	4
4	Takumi Minamino	Liverpool	4
5	Aiden O'Brien	Sunderland	4
6	Emil Riis Jakobsen	Preston North End	4
7	Jay Rodriguez	Burnley	4
8	Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang	Arsenal	3
9	Mohamed Elyounoussi	Southampton	3
10	Diogo Jota	Liverpool	3
11	Morgan Whittaker	Swansea City	3
12	Yoane Wissa	Brentford	3

Notes: Rochdale received a bye following the postponement of the match due to COVID-19 cases among Harrogate Town’s squad.

Qualification Process
All 92 clubs in the Premier League and English Football League entered the season’s EFL Cup. Access was distributed across the top 4 leagues of the English football league system. For the first two rounds, the draw was regionalised into northern and southern clubs.
In the first round, 22 of 24 Championship clubs, and all League One and League Two clubs entered. The following round, the two remaining Championship clubs, who finished 18th and 19th in the 2020–21 Premier League season (Fulham and West Bromwich Albion), and the Premier League clubs not involved in either the Champions League, Europa League, or Europa Conference League entered.