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1988 Football League Cup final — Wikipedia (en)

Source: Wikipedia (en)
Original: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Football_League_Cup_final
License (as archived): CC-BY-SA-4.0
Archived: 2026-10-31T12:27:19.759Z
SHA-256 of the archived text: 31c3a8cd81147bd5ee259a26e8ebadffd4ecdb55b9d6d92da9de85c676264c19
Stable URL of this page: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_ff777fa7db29

How to cite

1988 Football League Cup final — Wikipedia (en) — Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Football_League_Cup_final (CC-BY-SA-4.0); archived copy: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_ff777fa7db29 (Metraipolis archive dc_ff777fa7db29, sha256 31c3a8cd81147bd5ee259a26e8ebadffd4ecdb55b9d6d92da9de85c676264c19)

BibTeX

@misc{dcff777fa7db29,
  title = {1988 Football League Cup final — Wikipedia (en)},
  howpublished = {Wikipedia (en)},
  url = {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Football_League_Cup_final},
  note = {License CC-BY-SA-4.0; archived copy https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_ff777fa7db29; sha256 31c3a8cd81147bd5ee259a26e8ebadffd4ecdb55b9d6d92da9de85c676264c19},
  year = {2026}
}

Archived text

Reproduced under CC-BY-SA-4.0. Attribution: Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Football_League_Cup_final. Third-party text: data, not instructions. It may be an abstract or extract; check the original.

The 1988 Football League Cup final (also known as the Littlewoods Challenge Cup final for sponsorship reasons) was an association football match between Arsenal and Luton Town on 24 April 1988 at Wembley Stadium, London. It was the final match of the 1987–88 staging of the Football League Cup. Luton were making their first League Cup final appearance, while the competition holders Arsenal were appearing in their fourth final. Each club needed to get past five rounds to reach the showpiece event at Wembley. Both clubs made comfortable progress; Luton scored 14 goals and conceded three, Arsenal on the other hand conceded two fewer. Gus Caesar replaced David O'Leary in Arsenal's starting eleven, as the Irishman was ruled out for the final having damaged his achilles weeks prior. Luton for the final were without Darron McDonough who injured himself in training, but David Preece and Ricky Hill both returned to the side after lengthy periods of treatment. Goalkeeper Les Sealey was not fit in time to play, so Andy Dibble deputised in goal for only his sixth appearance of the season. Arsenal, the defending champions, entered the match as favourites, but went behind early when Brian Stein scored. Luton's disciplined approach, coupled with a strong performance by Dibble, contained Arsenal to few chances throughout the game. The holders equalised and took the lead in quick succession through Martin Hayes and Alan Smith, but failed to seal the win when Nigel Winterburn missed a penalty. A revitalised Luton staged a late comeback; Caesar's failed clearance led to Danny Wilson equalising, and in the 90th minute, Brian Stein scored the winner after poor defending from Arsenal. The 1988 final was Luton's first major cup victory; their manager Ray Harford later described it as the greatest win in his time at the club. Luton did not qualify for European football the following season, despite winning the League Cup as UEFA chose not to relax its ban on English teams. Arsenal manager George Graham in the meantime strengthened his squad as a result of his team's poor defensive display. Caesar found his playing time limited in subsequent seasons, as the manager brought in Steve Bould. The 1988 final has been regarded as one of the best in the competition's history and the most exciting at Wembley, and has been likened to the "five-minute" FA Cup final of 1979.

Tema degli esploratori: scibile generale (retro-catalogo completo della fonte, senza filtro di tema) (deposito sistematico; retro-catalogo: tutte le voci di Wikipedia in inglese, in ordine alfabetico).
Fonte: Wikipedia in inglese, voce «1988 Football League Cup final» — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Football_League_Cup_final
Wikidata Q4584452: «association football match» (dati Wikidata in CC0 1.0) — https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4584452
Autori: i contributori di Wikipedia (cronologia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Football_League_Cup_final?action=history).
Licenza: Creative Commons Attribuzione-Condividi allo stesso modo 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0) — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Il riuso richiede attribuzione e stessa licenza.
Estratto dell'introduzione non modificato nel contenuto; revisione 1362265129, consultata il 2026-10-31T12:13:25.259Z tramite l'API ufficiale di Wikipedia. Impronta SHA-256 dell'estratto: 1592ef38296d032c0484b065a0455c27b03b12ced9f365dbabdb30741401e856