Chelsea handed major advantage ahead of Liverpool Carabao Cup final showdown

Chelsea will enjoy uninterrupted preparation ahead of the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool at Wembley on Sunday because their postponed Premier League match against Tottenham Hotspur wasn't rescheduled for midweek. But the same cannot be said for Jurgen Klopp's side.

The Blues were set to play Spurs at Stamford Bridge on Friday, February 23, but the game was postponed after Chelsea's 6-2 aggregate win over Middlesbrough in the Carabao Cup semi-final last month. Unlike Liverpool's match against Luton Town, which was moved from Saturday, February 24 to February 21, Chelsea's game couldn't be rescheduled by the Premier League.

This is because UEFA doesn't allow televised domestic games to be played at the same time as European matches, with only a few fixtures getting special permission to do so in the past. According to This is Anfield, Chelsea's match against Spurs had been chosen for broadcast by Sky Sports. However, such agreements won't allow it to be played on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday when the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference knockout rounds are happening.

Liverpool's game against Luton, on the other hand, wasn't picked by either Sky Sports or TNT Sports and was therefore allowed to be moved to Wednesday night at Anfield — just four days before the 2024 Carabao Cup final. It means that only Chelsea will have a free week before the Wembley showdown on Sunday.

Liverpool kept their Premier League title tilt on track last weekend after they beat Brentford 4-1, but they had to contend with a growing injury list after Diogo Jota, Curtis Jones and Darwin Nunez all came off with different issues.

Speaking after the match, Klopp said: «We have to see how much it costs us, we don't know that