The draw for the third round of the Carabao Cup takes place this evening (Wednesday 28 August).
As one of seven Premier League clubs playing in Europe this season, we will enter the competition at this stage – all other top-flight sides entered in round two.
The draw will take place live on Sky Sports, following the conclusion of the second-round tie between Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United. We will be represented by ball number 23.
Due to the scheduling of UEFA Champions League and Europa League games over two exclusive midweeks in September, special draw conditions will be implemented for this year’s Carabao Cup third round to ensure there is no clash of fixtures for participating sides.
Fixtures at this stage of the competition will take place in the weeks commencing 16 and 23 September. However, with Champions League ties being held in the former week and Europa League ties in the latter, special measures have been introduced to ensure that any club participating in the Champions League cannot draw a side participating in the Europa League, thus enabling all round three fixtures to take place in the alternate week. Clubs competing in the Europa Conference League are unaffected.
These conditions mean, as a club participating in this season’s Europa League, we cannot be drawn against Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool or Aston Villa at this stage of the competition.
For the draw, the 32 clubs in the hat will be separated into two bowls. Bowl one will consist of the six clubs participating in the Champions League and Europa League – including ourselves – with the remaining 26 clubs placed into bowl two. A pre-draw will take place prior to the Forest v Newcastle tie, also live on Sky Sports, to determine the home and away positioning of the six clubs in bowl one for the first six ties of the main draw.
During the subsequent main draw after the game at the City Ground, the first six ties will be drawn by alternating between one club from bowl one and one club from bowl two. Once the six clubs from bowl one have been drawn, the remaining ties will be drawn from bowl two only.
A full list of draw ball numbers and participating sides can be found below.
2024/25 Carabao Cup third round draw numbers
1 Arsenal
2 Aston Villa
3 Barnsley
4 Barrow
5 Blackpool
6 Bolton Wanderers
7 Brighton & Hove Albion
8 Chelsea
9 Coventry City
10 Crystal Palace
11 Everton
12 Fleetwood Town
13 Fulham
14 Leicester City
15 Leyton Orient
16 Liverpool
17 Manchester City
18 Manchester United
19 Preston North End
20 Queens Park Rangers
21 Sheffield Wednesday
22 Stoke City
23 Tottenham Hotspur
24 Walsall
25 Watford
26 AFC Wimbledon or Ipswich Town
27 Cardiff City or Southampton
28 Colchester United or Brentford
29 Nottingham Forest or Newcastle United
30 Swansea City or Wycombe Wanderers
31 West Ham United or AFC Bournemouth
32 Wolverhampton Wanderers or Burnley