The League Cup final takes place at Wembley on Sunday 27 February 2022 with Chelsea and Liverpool going head-to-head.
It鈥檚 the first major domestic honour of the season, as Liverpool look to win the trophy for a record ninth time and European and world champions Chelsea attempt to add another piece of silverware to their collection.
Both teams have a rich history in the competition, which has been running since 1960. Over the past 61 years, there have been plenty of unusual moments in the final 鈥 成人快手 Bitesize takes a look at the unique history of the League Cup.
Tankards
Finals at Wembley are pretty iconic matches. At the final whistle, the winning captain usually leads his team up the famous stadium steps to receive the trophy and medals from the Royal Box.
But that鈥檚 not exactly how it went in the early days of the League Cup.
For one, the first six finals were played over two legs at each of the finalist鈥檚 home grounds before moving to the national stadium in 1967.
But for the first decade of the League Cup, players weren鈥檛 given medals, but tankards (silver handled mugs). One such silver tankard given to Tottenham player Cyril Knowles in 1971 sold at auction for around 拢1200.
The Football League moved to giving players medals in the 1970s 鈥 a shame given the fact the tournament was renamed the Milk Cup in the 1980s, where a tankard would have been the perfect way to enjoy a quick milky drink at full time.
Giantkillers
There鈥檚 not much that brings rival football fans together 鈥 but there is usually a shared joy every time an underdog pulls off an upset and the League Cup has provided plenty of these giantkilling moments in the past.
In the 1995-96 season, Manchester United, who went on to win the Premier League and FA Cup double, were knocked out by then third tier York City. League Two Bradford City actually reached the final in 2013, beating three top-flight teams on their way to the final, where they lost to Swansea City.
While it didn鈥檛 go Bradford鈥檚 way then, two teams from English football鈥檚 third tier have actually won the trophy.
In the first Wembley final in 1967, Queens Park Rangers beat West Bromwich Albion 3-2 to become the first-ever Third Division side to win a major English trophy. Two years later, Swindon Town repeated the trick with an even bigger giant-killing, beating Arsenal 3-1.
The month-long wait to celebrate
Whether it's a tankard or a medal, if you win a big final you'd usually expect to get yours straight after the game.
But for Arsenal鈥檚 Steve Morrow, his medal ceremony came a month later, in a completely different competition.
The Northern Irish midfielder started for Arsenal in the League Cup final at Wembley against Sheffield Wednesday and scored the second half winner - his first for the club.
Come the final whistle, Arsenal players ran to Morrow to celebrate, with club captain Tony Adams lifting the midfielder high up onto his shoulders.
Unfortunately, Adams slipped and dropped Morrow who badly broke his arm after landing on the Wembley turf. The young midfielder was rushed to hospital, missing out on receiving his medal and the post-match celebrations.
While the injury ended his season, forcing Morrow to also miss the FA Cup final between the same teams, he was invited back to Wembley to receive his medal ahead of kick-off in that game.
That match was drawn and went to a replay - meaning he was the only player to actually pick up a medal on the day.
From Wembley to Wales
The League Cup鈥檚 full name these days is the EFL Cup, named after the organising body, the English Football League. Despite its name, the cup has a rich history in Wales 鈥 including hosting the final for seven years.
After the first Wembley final in 1967, with the exception of a few replays, the national stadium hosted every final up to, and including 2000 before the old Wembley Stadium was demolished.
While the new Wembley was being built, all of English football鈥檚 major finals moved to Cardiff鈥檚 Millennium Stadium. The first game played there in 2001 also featured the first penalty shoot out in a major English cup final, as Liverpool triumphed over Birmingham City.
In total, seven finals were played in Cardiff between 2001 and 2007 but it wasn鈥檛 until 2013 that the League Cup returned to Wales.
That was the year, as previously mentioned, that Swansea City beat underdogs Bradford City 鈥 the first time that the tournament had ever been won by a non-English side.
2021
One of the most unusual moments in League Cup final history took place in 2021.
Against the backdrop of Covid-19, the game took place in April, instead of its now traditional February slot. The final was postponed for two months so that a small number of Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur fans could be in attendance.
Other than a handful of fixtures in December 2020, with maximum capacities of 2,000 supporters, games had been played behind closed doors for over 12 months during the global pandemic.
The game was used as a pilot event to test the return of large crowds to major events, with each club receiving 2,000 tickets and the remaining places being given to NHS staff and local residents.
In the end, 7,773 fans were at Wembley for the game - a far cry from the stadium's 90,000 capacity - which was a record low attendance for a League Cup final. The previous lowest came from the first leg of the 1962 final between hosts Rochdale and Norwich City, with 11,123 watching the Norfolk side take a 3-0 win.
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