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The draw for Round Three of the Carabao Cup will take place on Wednesday night on Sky Sports.

The Carabao Cup is back for its second round this week, with Round Three already coming into view.

Premier League clubs joined the competition at the Round Two stage, raising the possibility of a few giant-killings before the month of August is even over.

Round Three, however, will also bring the rest of the Premier League sides into the competition, and there will be two draws rather than one this week.

Round Two of the Carabao Cup will be drawn live on Sky Sports Football on Wednesday August 26, shortly after the end of Preston North End’s tie against Everton.

No, Round Three of the Carabao Cup will not divide teams into northern and southern sections.

However, there will be separate pots and a split-draw system for the Third Round, introduced to deal with fixture congestion caused by UEFA’s expanded European competition schedule.

Yes, the Carabao Cup is seeded at this stage now, with the EFL bringing in seeds in Round Three purely for logistical reasons.

English clubs in the Champions League and Europa League have to play two more matchdays than teams in the Conference League, which means a fixture backlog could arise without a system to stop these clubs from being drawn against one another.

Last season, for instance, third-round Carabao Cup ties were played during the weeks beginning September 16 and 23, when European fixtures were also taking place.

Before the main draw, which will happen after the Everton match, there will be a pre-draw to determine whether each of the eight Champions League and Europa League clubs will play at home or away.

The eight Premier League teams involved in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League are placed in Pot 1 because their match dates are tightly restricted by UEFA.

The first eight ties will match each pre-selected Pot 1 club, with its home or away status already confirmed, against an opponent drawn from Pot 2, which contains the remaining 24 teams.

The last eight ties will then be drawn solely from the 16 teams left in Pot 2.

This separation means no team involved in European competition can be drawn against another European-competing side in the Third Round.

Round Three of the Carabao Cup will be played over two separate midweek slots in September. Champions League Matchday 1 and Europa League Matchday 1 fall on alternate weeks during that period.

If a Champions League side were paired with a Europa League side, both clubs would face conflicting UEFA commitments on alternate weeks. As UEFA match dates cannot be changed, it would be impossible to find a shared midweek slot for them to play each other in the Carabao Cup.

The solution is to place all eight UCL and UEL teams in Pot 1 and ensure they face only non-European teams from Pot 2.

In this way, the EFL can easily schedule each tie in whichever of the two midweeks that particular European side is available.