# 2023–24 Egyptian League Cup

The 2023–24 Egyptian League Cup was the third edition of the Egyptian League Cup, a cup knockout competition open to all clubs participating in the Egyptian Premier League. The competition began on 8 January, and concluded with the final on 7 August 2024.
Defending champions Ceramica Cleopatra successfully defended their title as they beat Tala'ea El Gaish 3–1 in the final, winning their second League Cup trophy and second major title in the club's history.
Ceramica Cleopatra entered the tournament as the defending champion, having won the previous edition after beating Al Masry 4–1 in the final.

## Format

The format for the first edition of the competition was retained for this season. The tournament started with a group stage involving all participating teams split into four groups of four teams each, with the winners and runners-up of each group advancing to the next round. This round was played during the league's January/February break, due to the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations taking place from 13 January to 11 February 2024.
In the knockout stage round, matches are pre-determined. In the quarter-finals, teams advancing from Group A face teams from Group C, and teams from Group B face teams from Group D; and all matches are played on group winners' home venues; while the semi-finals and final are played on venues selected by the EPL. Similar to the group stage, the knockout stage, except the final, was played during the league's January/February break.
Starting from the knockout stage, matches are decided by penalties if teams are tied after 90 minutes.
The winners of the Egyptian League Cup join the Egypt Cup winners and Egyptian Premier League winners and runners-up in the Egyptian Super Cup next season.

### Tiebreakers

Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams are tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:
* Points in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
* Goal difference in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
* Goals scored in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
* If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
* Goal difference in all group matches;
* Goals scored in all group matches;
* Draw of lots.

## Prize money

On 11 September 2023, the prizes for the 2023–24 season were announced by the EPL. The winning team earn 1.5 million Egyptian pounds (LE), the runners-up receive 1 million LE, while the remaining 14 participating teams receive 100,000 LE. Any team that withdraws from the Egyptian League Cup will not receive the prizes for participation in the Egyptian Premier League, which are worth one million LE. If a team withdraws after the draw is held, an additional fine of one million LE would be applied.
| Place | Teams | Amount (in LE) | Amount (in LE) |
| Place | Teams | Per team | Total |
| Winners | 1 | 1.5m | 1.5m |
| Runners-up | 1 | 1m | 1m |
| 3rd–4th place (semi-finalists) | 2 | 100k | 200k |
| 5th–8th place (quarter-finalists) | 4 | 100k | 400k |
| 9th–16th place (group stage) | 8 | 100k | 800k |
| Total | 16 | 3.9m | 3.9m |

## Draw

The draw for the group stage was held at the Egyptian Football Association headquarters in Gezira, Cairo on 31 December 2023, 14:00 CAT.
Al Ahly announced their withdrawal from the competition on 20 December 2023, citing injuries and tight schedule faced by the club in the last few weeks before the draw. On 26 December 2023, Zamalek also announced that they would not participate in the competition for this season.
Following the withdrawal of Al Ahly and Zamalek, the group stage was changed from three groups of six teams, to four groups of four teams. The 16 participating teams were separated into four pots, based on their league rankings in the previous season, except for the defending champions Ceramica Cleopatra, who topped pot 1.
| Pot | Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
| Teams | Ceramica Cleopatra$^{TH}$ Pyramids Modern Future Al Masry | ENPPI Al Mokawloon Al Arab Al Ittihad Pharco | Smouha Ismaily National Bank of Egypt Tala'ea El Gaish | El Dakhleya El Gouna ZED Baladiyat El Mahalla |

## Group stage

All times are CAT (UTC+2).

### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Al Ittihad | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | Smouha | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 4 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 3 | Modern Future | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | |
| 4 | Baladiyat El Mahalla | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | −1 | 3 | |
* 1 2 Tied on head-to-head record. Overall goal difference: Smouha +1, Modern Future 0.

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Tala'ea El Gaish | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | +2 | 7 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | Pyramids | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 5 | +2 | 5 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 3 | ZED | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | −1 | 3 | |
| 4 | Pharco | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | −3 | 1 | |

### Group C

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Ceramica Cleopatra | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | +4 | 7 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | ENPPI | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 3 | El Dakhleya | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 4 | |
| 4 | Ismaily | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | −4 | 0 | |

### Group D

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Al Masry | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 3 | +2 | 7 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | El Gouna | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | +1 | 4 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 3 | National Bank of Egypt | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 4 | |
| 4 | Al Mokawloon Al Arab | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | −2 | 1 | |
* 1 2 Head-to-head result: El Gouna 3–1 National Bank of Egypt.

## Knockout stage
### Quarter-finals

Matches were played on 31 January and 1 February 2024.
All times are CAT (UTC+2).

### Semi-finals

Both matches were played on 6 February 2024.
All times are CAT (UTC+2).

### Final
## Bracket

The following is the bracket which the Egyptian League Cup resembles (excluding the group stage). Numbers in parentheses next to the match score represent the results of a penalty shoot-out.
| Quarter-finals 31 January – 1 February 2024 | Quarter-finals 31 January – 1 February 2024 | Semi-finals 6 February 2024 | Semi-finals 6 February 2024 | Final 7 August 2024 | Final 7 August 2024 |
| Al Ittihad | 2 | | | | |
| ENPPI | 0 | | | | |
| ENPPI | 0 | Al Ittihad | 0 | | |
| | | Ceramica Cleopatra | 1 | | |
| Ceramica Cleopatra | 2 | Ceramica Cleopatra | 1 | | |
| Smouha | 0 | | | | |
| Smouha | 0 | | | Ceramica Cleopatra | 3 |
| | | | | Tala'ea El Gaish | 1 |
| Tala'ea El Gaish | 1 (6) | | | | | Tala'ea El Gaish | 1 |
| El Gouna | 1 (5) | | | | |
| El Gouna | 1 (5) | Tala'ea El Gaish | 1 (3) | | |
| | | Al Masry | 1 (1) | | |
| Al Masry | 3 | Al Masry | 1 (1) | | |
| Pyramids | 1 | | | | |

## Top scorers

| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
| 1 | Mido Gaber | Al Masry | 3 |
| 1 | Ashraf Magdy | El Gouna | 3 |
| 1 | Youssry Wahid | Tala'ea El Gaish | 3 |
| 4 | Ahmed Belhadji | Ceramica Cleopatra | 2 |
| 4 | Ali Fawzi | ENPPI | 2 |
| 4 | John Okoye Ebuka | Ceramica Cleopatra | 2 |
| 4 | Khaled El Ghandour | Al Ittihad | 2 |
| 4 | Shady Hussein | ZED | 2 |
| 4 | Ahmed Kendouci | Ceramica Cleopatra | 2 |
| 4 | Fagrie Lakay | Pyramids | 2 |
| 4 | Salah Mohsen | Al Masry | 2 |
| 4 | Tunji Omotosho | El Dakhleya | 2 |
| 4 | Ahmed Yasser Rayyan | Ceramica Cleopatra | 2 |