Watford drawn away to Manchester City in Carabao Cup

The tie will take place in either the week commencing Monday September 16, or Monday September 23.

The Hornets beat Plymouth 2-0 last night with both goals coming from Mileta Rajovic

That was after easing through their first-round game, hammering League Two side MK Dons 5-0 at Vicarage Road with Tom Ince grabbing a hat-trick.

Their third-round opponents City only enter the tournament at that stage due to their qualification for the Champions League.

They won the competition for four consecutive seasons between 2018 and 2021, and have won it eight times in total.

The Hornets have lost all of their last eight games at City, conceding 30 and scoring only five.

Infamously, they were trounced 8-0 at the Etihad in September 2019 when the home side were 5-0 up after 18 minutes.

Watford have reached the third round of the competition for the first time since 2021, when they were beaten 3-1 by Stoke City.

In 2019, the Hornets progressed as far as the fourth round before losing 2-0 to Everton.

The club have twice reached the semi-finals of the League Cup, which has had a variety of sponsors down the years.

The first time was in the 1978/79 season when they claimed some notable scalps on the way to being beaten 3-1 on aggregate over two legs by Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest.

Then in the 2004/05 season, Ray Lewington took Watford to the last four again, but they were beaten 1-0 home and away by Liverpool.

The reason there are two dates for matches in the third round is to avoid clashes with games in the Champions League and Europa League.

Other key dates for the rest of the Carabao Cup are as follows:

Fourth round - w/c October 28

Quarter-finals - w/c December 16

Semi-finals - w/c January 6 (first leg) and w/c February 3 (second leg)

Final – March 16