The reason United and City are in two different Carabao Cup third round draws

Manchester Evening News · Ross Jackson

The draw will take place following the conclusion of Preston North End vs Everton and will be broadcast live on Sky Sports.

The nine Premier League clubs who qualified for Europe last season will join the 23 teams still in the competition in the draw. Those nine Premier League teams are the sides who finished in the top eight last season - Arsenal, City, United, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Bournemouth, Sunderland and Brighton - and Conference League winners Crystal Palace.

While the main draw is set to begin after Preston's clash with Everton, before that game at Deepdale there will be a pre-draw to determine which of the Champions League and Europa League clubs will play at home or away in the third round, meaning United and City will be in two draws this evening.

The clubs that will be participating in the Champions League and Europa League cannot be drawn against each other to avoid scheduling issues.

When the main draw begins following Everton's game against Preston, the first eight fixtures to be decided will be the ones involving clubs in the Champions League and Europa League. After that, the draw will take place as usual.

The Carabao Cup third round will be played across two different weeks, these being the weeks commencing Monday 7 September and Monday 14 September.

Read on Manchester Evening News

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