2003–04 Football League Cup

2003-04 Football League Cup

Country	England  Wales
Teams	92
Champions	Middlesbrough
Runners-up	Bolton Wanderers
Matches played	93
← 2002–03 2004–05 →

The 2003–04 Football League Cup was the 44th staging of the Football League Cup, a knockout competition for England's top 92 football clubs. The competition was sponsored by lager brand Carling and therefore officially known as the 2003–04 Carling Cup.

The competition began in August 2003 and ended with the final on 29 February 2004. The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff hosted the final match, as it had done since 2001 as the reconstruction was still taking place on Wembley Stadium in London.

The winners were Middlesbrough who beat Bolton Wanderers in the final 2-1 and collected their first major piece of silverware in their history and as a result of their victory qualified for European football for the first time. Joseph Desire-Job gave Middlesbrough the lead with just 2 minutes gone and a Bolo Zenden penalty five minutes later doubled their advantage. Kevin Davies pulled a goal back in the 21st minute but Middlesbrough held on. It was to be until 2008 when another English manager won a domestic tournament when Harry Redknapp (then at Portsmouth) lifted the FA Cup.

First round [edit]

¹ Score after 90 minutes

Second round [edit]

The 36 winners from the First Round joined 16 of the 20 Premier League clubs not participating in the UEFA Champions League in Round Two.

• The draw was made on 16 August 2003.
• Matches occurred during the week commencing 22 August.
• Extra time played when the scores were level after 90 minutes.

¹ Score after 90 minutes

Third round [edit]

Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Newcastle United joined the 24 winners from the Second Round. Matches were played on the week commencing 27 October 2003

¹ Score after 90 minutes

Fourth round [edit]

• The draw was made on 30 November 2003.
• Matches were played in the week commencing 1 December.
• Extra time played when scores level at 90 minutes.

2003-12-03	Aston Villa	3 – 0	Crystal Palace	Villa Park, Birmingham Attendance: 24,258 Referee: Mike Dean
	Symons(og)  22' McCann 70' Angel 79'

2003-12-03	Liverpool	2 – 3	Bolton Wanderers	Anfield, Liverpool Attendance: 33,185 Referee: Mike Riley
	Murphy  66' Šmicer  88'		Jardel 4' Okacha  79' Djorkaeff  90' (pen.)

2003-12-03	Reading	0 – 1	Chelsea	Madejski Stadium, Reading Attendance: 24,107 Referee: Steve Bennett (referee)
			Hasselbaink  57'

2003-12-03	Tottenham Hotspur	3 – 1	Manchester City	White Hart Lane, London Attendance: 31,727 Referee: Paul Durkin
	Anderton  9' Postiga  30' Kanouté  90'		Fowler  80'

2003-12-03	West Bromwich Albion	2 – 0	Manchester United	The Hawthorns, West Bromwich Attendance: 25,282 Referee: Jeff Winter
	Haas  6' Dobie  56'

2003-12-02	Arsenal	5 – 1	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Highbury, London Attendance: 28,161 Referee: Dermot Gallagher
	Aliadière  24' 71' Kanu  68' Wiltord  79' Fàbregas  88'		Rae  81'

2003-12-02	Southampton	2 – 0	Portsmouth	St. Mary's Stadium, Southampton Attendance: 16,791 Referee: Graham Poll
	Beattie  33' 90'

Fifth round [edit]

The draw for the fifth round was made on 6 December 2003. Matches were played in the week beginning 15 December 2003. The only team from outside the Premier League competing in this round was West Bromwich Albion, who lost 2-0 to Arsenal.

2003-12-16 20:00	West Bromwich Albion	0 – 2	Arsenal	The Hawthorns, West Bromwich Attendance: 20,369 Referee: Matt Messias (West Yorkshire)
			Kanu  25' Aliadière  57'

2003-12-16 20:00	Bolton	1 – 0 (a.e.t.)	Southampton	Reebok Stadium, Bolton Attendance: 13,957 Referee: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire)
	Pedersen  115'

2003-12-17 19:45	Tottenham Hotspur	1 - 1 (a.e.t.) 4 – 5p	Middlesbrough	White Hart Lane, London Attendance: 25,307 Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral)
	Anderton  2'		M. Ricketts  86'

2003-12-17 19:45	Aston Villa	2 - 1	Chelsea	Villa Park, Birmingham Attendance: 30,414 Referee: Neale Barry (North Lincolnshire)
	Angel  16' McCann  78'		J. Cole  69'

Semi-finals [edit]

The semi-final draw was made on 20 December 2003 Unlike the other rounds, the semi-final ties were played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The ties were played in the weeks beginning 19 January and 20 January 26 January 2003, however the second leg of Middlesbrough v Arsenal was not played until 3 February 2003.

First leg [edit]

2004-01-20	Arsenal	0 – 1	Middlesbrough	Highbury, London Attendance: 31,070 Referee: Steve Dunn
			Juninho  53'

2004-01-21	Bolton Wanderers	5 – 2	Aston Villa	Reebok Stadium, Bolton Attendance: 16,302 Referee: Paul Durkin
	Okocha  2', 80' Nolan  9' Giannakopoulos  17' N'Gotty  74'		Ángel  20', 56'

Second leg [edit]

2004-01-27	Aston Villa	2 – 0	Bolton Wanderers	Villa Park, Birmingham Attendance: 36,883 Referee: Steve Bennett
	Hitzlsperger  10' Samuel  88'

Bolton Wanderers won 5–4 on aggregate.

2004-02-03	Middlesbrough	2 – 1	Arsenal	Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough Attendance: 28,781 Referee: Dermot Gallagher
	Zenden  69' Reyes  85' (o.g.)		Edu  77'

Middlesbrough won 3–1 on aggregate.

Final [edit]

The 2004 Carling Cup Final was played on 24 February 2004 at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. It was contested by Bolton Wanderers and Middlesbrough. Middlesbrough won the match 2-1 and in doing so collected their first major piece of silverware in their history and qualified for the European football in the UEFA Cup for the first time.

2004-02-29 14:00	Bolton Wanderers	1 – 2	Middlesbrough	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Attendance: 72,634 Referee: Mike Riley (West Yorkshire)
	Davies  21'	Report	Job  2' Zenden  7' (pen.)

See also [edit]

• Football League Cup

External links [edit]

• Official Carling Cup website
• Carling Cup at bbc.co.uk
• Results service at soccerbase.com