Two trips to the City Ground in four days, two wins, two clean sheets. Leeds United have made a habit of Nottingham already this season, and Tuesday night’s 2-0 Carabao Cup win has earned Daniel Farke’s side something he has never had in his time at Elland Road — a place in the third round, and a ball in tonight’s Carabao Cup third round draw. Now comes the part the Whites cannot control.
Leeds go into the hat as a Premier League club with a 100 per cent record in all competitions, having beaten the same opponent twice inside four days. But this is also the stage at which the competition gets serious, because the eight Premier League clubs involved in Europe enter here. Here is when the draw happens, how to follow it, and the quirk in the process that shapes exactly who Leeds can be paired with.
When is the Carabao Cup third round draw?
The draw takes place this evening, Wednesday 26 August, and it is tied to the very last second-round tie rather than to a fixed slot. Preston North End host Everton at Deepdale with an 8pm kick-off and, as the Yorkshire Evening Post’s Kyle Newbould reports, the draw is scheduled to begin once that game finishes. In practice that means somewhere around 10pm — and later still if Preston and Everton cannot separate themselves inside 90 minutes and the tie goes to spot-kicks.
How to watch the draw
Everton’s trip to Deepdale has been selected for live television, and the draw follows immediately afterwards on the same channels. That means Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football, with subscribers also able to watch it through the Sky Sports website or app if they are away from a screen at home. For anyone planning their evening around it, the safest advice is to put the Preston game on and stay with it.
The pre-draw that shapes Leeds’ night
There is one wrinkle worth understanding before the balls come out. The eight Premier League sides competing in European competition this season enter the Carabao Cup at the third round, and to avoid clashes with the continental calendar they cannot be drawn against each other. To manage that, a separate pre-draw process is carried out before kick-off at Deepdale involving those eight clubs alone.
Leeds, of course, are not among them. Farke’s side are in the main pot with everyone else, which means a European-chasing heavyweight is very much on the table — and so is the sort of lower-league away day that has bitten the Whites before. Twelve months ago Leeds went out of this competition at Sheffield Wednesday, an early exit that still colours how supporters look at a second-round win.
How Leeds got here
Farke made six changes at the City Ground and was rewarded with what he called an “outstanding” debut from summer signing Nico Elvedi, who went straight into the middle of the back three and played the full 90. Dan James broke the deadlock six minutes into the second half, chipping a finish over Matz Sels, before a scrappy second arrived with around 15 minutes left. That one is still contested: PA logged it as a Neco Williams own goal, while the YEP reported that James Justin was eventually credited with the last touch.
The wider picture is that Leeds now have two City Ground wins in the bank at a stadium where, before Saturday, they had not won since 1972. James, whose post-match message went down well with the travelling support, has staked a claim for more starts. Elsewhere in the round there was a reminder of how quickly a night can get away from a side, Brentford putting six past Birmingham at St Andrew’s.
Two rounds in, Farke has a squad he keeps insisting is deeper than last season’s, and a cup run would give him somewhere to prove it. By the time most of Leeds go to bed tonight, the Whites will know where that run goes next. Then it is straight back to Premier League business and a meeting with those same free-scoring Bees.
