The draw for the second round of this season's Carabao Cup will be held on Monday, August 10, 2026, marking the next stage of English football's secondary cup competition. The draw is scheduled for approximately 7:20pm BST and will take place as part of the build-up to the Devon derby between Plymouth and Exeter at Home Park.
Sky Sports presenter David Prutton will host proceedings, with pundits Jobi McAnuff and Jamie Mackie conducting the draw itself. Coverage will be shown live on Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Football and Sky Sports Ultra HDR, with Sky Go available for subscribers wanting to stream online.
Eleven Premier League clubs will enter the competition at this second-round stage, joining the 35 winners from round one. Among them are London rivals Chelsea and Tottenham, who find themselves without European commitments this season following respective 10th and 17th-place finishes in the Premier League last term. That absence from continental competition means both clubs enter the Carabao Cup a round earlier than usual.
They are joined by Brentford, Fulham, Newcastle, Everton, Leeds and Nottingham Forest, along with promoted clubs Coventry, Ipswich and Hull. The remaining Premier League sides — holders Manchester City, along with Arsenal, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Liverpool — are all involved in this season's Champions League and therefore won't join the competition until the third round next month. Bournemouth, Sunderland and Crystal Palace, competing in the Europa League, and Conference League side Brighton also await their entry at that later stage.
West Ham, Burnley and Wolves, all relegated from the Premier League last season, entered at the first-round stage rather than skipping ahead.
The competition remains split geographically into north and south sections through the first two rounds before opening up nationally from round three onwards. Ball numbers for Monday's draw will be confirmed once the majority of first-round fixtures have concluded over the weekend.
The changes to the tournament's scheduling form part of a broader effort by the EFL to reduce fixture congestion early in the season. Traditionally, clubs would have faced a hectic schedule of three matches in a single week during this period, but organizers have opted to spread fixtures across a longer window this year, marking the first time in over a century that a complete round of Carabao Cup matches has been played across a full weekend rather than condensed into midweek slots.
First-round action began this week, with fourth-tier Walsall producing a shock 1-0 win over Championship side Bristol City at Ashton Gate. Crawley and Rochdale had earlier progressed through preliminary-round victories over York and Tranmere respectively.
Among Thursday night's first-round ties was a meeting between Middlesbrough and Wrexham at the Riverside Stadium. Boro, who had hoped to bypass this stage of the competition after reaching the Championship playoff final against Hull in May, fielded £10m signing Will Lankshear in his competitive debut for the club, alongside American recruits Max Arfsten and Sebastian Berhalter. Wrexham, fresh off a preseason tour of the United States, gave a full debut to new signing Daniel Imray at right wing-back, with Danny Ward selected in goal.
Other notable first-round fixtures across the weekend included Wolves against Port Vale, Wycombe versus Stevenage, West Ham hosting Portsmouth, and Burnley taking on Notts County, among a busy schedule of matches played on both Friday and Saturday.
Second-round matches will be played during the week commencing August 24, returning to the more traditional midweek scheduling for EFL Cup football.
Based on reporting from Standard Sport and The Guardian.