Carabao Cup Final 2024: Date, time, venue and how to watch | OneFootball

Chelsea will face Liverpool in the 2023/24 Carabao Cup final, which will be the second meeting between these two sides in the past three years. The Reds got the better of their London-based opponents that day. A game that ended 0-0 which saw the game end with a victory for Jurgen Klopp's side.

The Blues will be hoping for a different result this time around after they cruised past Middlesbrough 6-2 on aggregate, despite losing 1-0 at the Riverside Stadium in the first leg. Despite their sluggish run in the Premier League, they have been strong in the Carabao Cup, beating the likes of Brighton, Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United on their way to Wembley. Liverpool have been strong on all fronts this season and have an equally strong League Cup campaign. The Reds got past Leicester City, Bournemouth, West Ham and beat a strong Fulham side in the semi-final to book their place in the final.

Last season's final between Manchester United and Newcastle marked 100 years at Wembley, and the Red Devils took a 2-0 victory on that occasion and secured the silverware. This time, the trophy will either be staying in London, or going back up north to Merseyside.

As the anticipation and the excitement grows towards what should be an enticing fixture for the neutral, here is everything you need to know about the game itself and all the crucial details.

25th February 2024 - 4:30pm kickoff

The Carabao Cup final will take place on the 25th February 2024, with English clubs looking to be the first to win a major domestic trophy this season by winning the competition. The kick-off time is being reported as 4:30 pm GMT.

Being held in February, the Carabao Cup final is usually the first domestic final in the English season, giving teams a chance to get their hands on some silverware just midway through their league campaigns. With eight-time winners Man City already out of the competition, thanks to Eddie Howe's Newcastle side putting them out in the third round, this year provides a great competition for a club to use a win in this competition as a springboard for greater things down the line.

For decades the final was played in either late March or early April. This was until the 1999/2000 season when it changed to its current date and has since been played in late February or early March.

The 2024 Carabao Cup final will take place at the iconic Wembley Stadium in London. The final of any English domestic cup competitions are always held at the home of football, and it's safe to say Wembley has a packed schedule heading into 2024. The stadium is the perfect place to hold any big game of football as it can hold crowds of up to a whopping 90,000 people, earning its right as the biggest stadium in the country and the second largest in Europe since its re-opening in 2007.

The first Carabao Cup final was held at the new Wembley Stadium in the following year after its re-opening, as Tottenham Hotspur defeated city rivals Chelsea 2-1, winning their first trophy in nine years - where they won the same competition in 1999 - and also their most recent trophy to date. Before the 2024 final takes place, the new Wembley has hosted a total of 16 finals under the iconic arch, with some of those taking their place as the most memorable finals in the competition's history. In 2011, Birmingham City - who were to be relegated from the Premier League just months later - provided one of the biggest upsets in the competition's history, as they defeated Arsene Wenger's Arsenal side 2-1, as a mix-up between goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny and defender Laurent Koscielny gifted the underdogs a 90th-minute winner.

Two years later, the 2013 final broke numerous long-standing records, as Premier League side Swansea City played in the first major English cup final in their 101-year history, as they took on League 2 outfit Bradford City, who had remarkably made it to the final and were the first fourth-tier side to reach the League Cup final since Rochdale in 1962. Swansea may have eased to victory 5-0 in the end - thanks to a goal from Michu, one of the most sensational one-season wonders ever seen - but the story of the final, and the remarkable way both sides managed to make it there, made the 2012/13 edition of the competition one of the most memorable in history.

Tickets

Tickets for the final are rather hard to get hold of, as they are not sold to the public on a general sale. According to the official Wembley Stadium website, the only way to get hold of match tickets is directly through the two relevant clubs competing in the final. The usual way clubs release tickets for major finals is often solely to the most devoted fans first, giving season ticket holders the chance to buy one ticket per person. Then the sale moves on to fans with the highest level of membership next, before moving down the levels of membership to the lower levels.

This is all before what is often the final stage of a club selling their allocation, where most clubs will usually then give the fans who have attended the previous rounds of this year's competition a chance to buy a ticket, starting with fans who have attended all the previous rounds, and working down to fans who may have only attended one or two matches. Once this process is over, most clubs have usually sold out their allocation without the need for a general sale.

For those who may have a little more cash to splash, Wembley themselves do offer a viable route of accessing tickets through their memberships, called the Wembley Club. As a member, you gain numerous advantages such as access to bars and restaurants, exclusive invitations to events, complimentary train travel, priority access to concert tickets & NFL tickets, and most importantly, a ticket for all the major football occasions at Wembley. Prices start at £2,538 per season (inc VAT) and rise to £12,504 per season (inc VAT).

How to watch

The final will be on TV but unfortunately won't be free-to-view on terrestrial television. Sky Sports are the exclusive broadcaster for the 2023/24 Carabao Cup, so they will be showing the final live. If you don't have access to Sky, an alternative option is to stream the match through NOW TV, as with all the other fixtures that are televised exclusively on Sky Sports. Pricing options for a NOW Sports Membership start from £11.99 for a 24-hour 'Day Membership', or if you fancy a little more value for money, a 'Month Membership' is available for £34.99 a month.

The pre-match build-up often begins around an hour before kick-off, with both managers speaking to the press to answer their questions, and ex-professionals turned pundits give their views on what might be about to unfold on the Wembley turf throughout the next 90 minutes. Once the game comes to an end the famous walk up the Wembley steps, followed by the trophy lift, is broadcast to the nation, before players from both sides speak to broadcasters about what they have just achieved. For those not looking to pay for the privilege of watching the match in its entirety, Sky Sports will post the highlights of the final on their YouTube channel a few hours after the referee blows his final whistle.