‘No more’… Jamie Carragher wants rule change after watching Chelsea and Everton games

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Chelsea and Everton were both in Carabao Cup quarter-final action on Tuesday night.

The Blues and the Toffees both saw their respective matches finish 1-1 after 90 minutes. As per the rules of the competition, this meant an instant penalty shootout.

Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher is a fan of this format and, after both games were settled, he took to X to call for all extra time in cup competitions to be scrapped.

“Straight to pens with no extra time, is a much better spectacle than an extra 30 mins of football when players are shattered and terrified of making a mistake,” wrote Carragher.

“No more extra time in any competitions please,” he added, complete with a fingers-crossed emoji.

Both Chelsea and Everton were trailing in their games, to Newcastle and Fulham respectively. However, the hosts on the night both equalised late on.

Mauricio Pochettino’s charges, who equalised through Mykhaylo Mudryk in second-half injury time, went on to triumph in their shootout.

Kieran Trippier and Matt Ritchie both missed their spot kicks to send Chelsea to the final four of the tournament.

Meanwhile, Sean Dyche’s side restored parity through a close-range Beto header, but the Cottagers still went on to prevail.

Idrissa Gueye had struck the post, and Tosin Adarabioyo stepped up to send the West Londoners through to their first domestic semi-final in 22 years.

Jamie Carragher makes good point but rule change unlikely to happen – TBR View

Carragher does make a good point. With the players not needing to conserve their energy ahead of another 30 minutes, they were able to give their all in the 90 minutes knowing spot kicks would be next.

However, it’s unlikely that we’ll see this in any of the major cup competitions. Imagine the 2022 World Cup final without extra time. The action in those 30 minutes contributed to that game being arguably the best football encounter of all time.

It’s definitely a good shout for the Carabao Cup though. With so many fixtures in the English game, particularly for the top teams fighting on four fronts, it definitely lightens the workload and puts slightly less strain on already overworked players.