EFL Cup REVIEW 26 Aug 2026: Bradford City hold out at Valley Parade, and win the shootout

Four second-round ties on Wednesday, and the one that went the distance was the one worth staying up for. Bradford City and Burnley finished goalless at Valley Parade and Bradford won the shootout 4-2. Elsewhere the favourites came through, though not all of them comfortably: Newcastle United beat West Bromwich Albion 3-2, Tottenham Hotspur beat Charlton Athletic 5-1, and Everton won 4-0 at Preston North End.

Burnley, who had made nine changes from their weekend at West Bromwich Albion, were the better side early on, Connor Roberts twice forcing Jon McCracken into saves. Bradford grew into it after the break, Gregoire Coudert saving from Adam Phillips and Josh Laurent clearing a Macaulay Gillesphey header off the line. In the shootout Zeki Amdouni hit the post with Burnley's first and McCracken saved from Jacob Bruun Larsen. Bradford have made a habit of these: the 2012/13 run to the final, made from the fourth tier, went through Wigan Athletic 4-2 on penalties in the fourth round and Arsenal 3-2 at Valley Parade in the fifth, before Swansea City won the final 5-0 at Wembley. Graham Alexander's side go to Leyton Orient in the third round.

Newcastle United were behind inside twenty minutes to a free kick from Isaac Price, curled round the wall on his debut for West Bromwich Albion, and needed a substitution to turn it. Harvey Barnes replaced Bazoumana Toure at the interval and scored within two minutes, then settled it on 81 from an Amar Dedic cross; both goals came against a former club of his. Price had levelled again from the penalty spot on 77. It was a first competitive win for Matthias Jaissle, who said afterwards that West Bromwich Albion "were a strong opponent, they're brave and I will follow them now but I'm happy". At Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Mikey Moore scored his first goal for the club on 41 and Dominic Solanke added a second before half time. Kevin Danso headed in moments after coming on, and Savio, signed the day before, scored on his debut on 82. The fifth was awarded to Ben Davies after a deflection. Lloyd Jones headed a Charlton consolation on 87, on a night their evening had been disrupted early when Collins Sichenje was carried off with a knee injury.

Everton's win at Deepdale was built on Thierno Barry, who scored on 25, 59 and 70 and made the fourth for Brennan Johnson two minutes later, Johnson's first goal in 35 games. It was Barry's first hat-trick for the club, and it came on David Moyes's first return to the ground where he began as a manager. Paul Heckingbottom felt the game turned on the timing of the second: "It's just frustrating we were going to make the subs and they scored the goal as we had them all lined up." Moyes was blunter about his forward, saying he had told Barry "he has to do a lot better than he did before. We want centre-forwards to score goals." The third-round draw sends Newcastle United to Millwall, Tottenham Hotspur to Liverpool and Everton to Wolverhampton Wanderers.