[2] Liverpool opened the scoring with a 25-yard long-range shot from Robbie Fowler in the 30th minute and appeared to be heading for a win in normal time until Birmingham equalised in injury-time with a penalty from Darren Purse, after Martin O'Connor was brought down by Stéphane Henchoz.

It was the first such penalty shoot-out in a major English domestic cup final (excluding Charity Shield matches).

Birmingham won the first leg at Southend's home ground Roots Hall 5–0, courtesy of goals from Nicky Eaden, Marcelo, Michael Johnson, Dele Adebola and Bryan Hughes.

[4] Birmingham won the second leg at St Andrew's 1–0, courtesy of a Peter Ndlovu goal to win the tie 5–3 on aggregate.

Birmingham took the lead in the match held at Tottenham's home ground, White Hart Lane, in the 15th minute when Adebola scored.

Tottenham pulled a goal back through a penalty kick scored by Darren Anderton, but they were unable to level the match and Birmingham won 3–1.

[5] They faced Premier League team Newcastle United in the fourth round, with the match held at St Andrew's.

The match remained level until the final minute when Michael Johnson scored to give Birmingham a 2–1 victory.

Goals from Martin Grainger and Andrew Johnson secured a 4–1 victory and a 4–2 aggregate win to send Birmingham into the final.

Liverpool took the lead in the match held at their home ground, Anfield when midfielder Danny Murphy scored.

The match held at Stoke's home ground, the Britannia Stadium resulted in an eight-goal victory for Liverpool.

[13] In October 2000, Wembley Stadium, the final's traditional venue, was closed in anticipation of major redevelopment.

The sides had previously met three times in the competition, Liverpool won the first match in the 1980–81 Football League Cup 3–1, while their fourth round tie in the 1983–84 Football League Cup, resulted in a 3–0 victory for Liverpool in a replay after the original match finished 1–1.

[17] Liverpool's last match before the final was the second leg tie in the fourth round of the 2000–01 UEFA Cup against Italian team Roma.

After the victory, Birmingham manager Trevor Francis stated that his main aim for the season was to win promotion to the Premier League: "By five o'clock on Sunday we will have either won or lost the final, but there will still be 45 points to play for in the Nationwide First Division.

"[19] Liverpool manager Gérard Houllier was eager to win his first trophy at the club: "We always take each competition seriously, we have a duty to ourselves and to our supporters.

When you enter a competition as a First Division team, you hope for a good run but you don't realistically think you can get to the final.