EFL Trophy final: The miracle happended to Sunderland

Where did the EFL Trophy final take place?

The EFL Trophy this season has been closed on March 14th, 2021 with the final round being held at England’s national stadium, Wembley Stadium, in which many other prestigious football competitions have been held. 

Due to the serious situation that the COVID-19 pandemic brought to Europe, the EFL Trophy final 2021 was played behind closed doors without fans. 

Who won the EFL Trophy 2021?

Sunderland has won the EFL Trophy in the 2020-2021 season. This is also the first time getting the EFL Trophy’s highest award of this professional English football club. In the EFL Trophy final match, Sunderland met Tranmere Rovers after defeating Lincoln by 2-1.  

Sunderland was humbly victorious by a one-goal margin (1-0) ahead of Tranmere. This victory over the League-Two club of the League-One club isn’t a huge surprise at all.  

Sunderland- the champion of the 2020-2021 EEFL Trophy

EFL Trophy fundamentals

This section will provide you with the basics about the history and format of the EFL Trophy. Let’s check it out!

What is EFL Trophy?

EFL Trophy stands for English Football League Trophy, or also known as the Papa John’s Trophy due to sponsorship reasons, is an annual English football competition. It was first introduced in 1984 as the Associate Members’ Cup. 

Since the 2016-2017 season up to the present, this tournament has been known as the EFL Trophy and another name related to the sponsorship company, which varied in each period of time. 

EFL Trophy logo

How does the EFL Trophy operate?

The EFL Trophy gathers 64 teams, including 48 clubs in League One and League Two, and the other 16 teams are invited academy teams from the two highest divisions Premier League and Championship. 

64 teams will be regionally divided into 16 groups of four (eight in the Northern Section and the rest in the Southern Section), each group comprises an invited academy team. There will be six rounds in the whole competition, starting with the group stage. The knockout phase is counted from round 2 to the final. 

In the group stage, teams will be drawn before competing against each other, and the scoring system (three points for winning a match, one point for a tied game) will determine the top two clubs of each group will go further in the next round. 

What is the difference between the EFL Cup and the EFL Trophy?

Basically, the EFL Cup and EFL Trophy share the most similarities. The comparison below will show you the details about how they differentiate from each other and what are the resemblances. 

So it seems that in the EFL Cup, strong teams that come from the top-flight divisions will be more advantageous as they have to join fewer matches.  

Reference sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFL_Trophy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_EFL_Trophy_Final

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%9320_EFL_Trophy