23rd January, 2014
Manchester United’s desperate season met with fresh degradation on Wednesday as they sensationally lost on penalties to Sunderland in the League Cup semi-finals at Old Trafford.
Defeat on penalties to Sunderland may have been a heartbreaking way to lose a Capital One Cup semi-final, but manager David Moyes says Manchester United did not deserve to beat Sunderland.
The Reds defended stoutly for most of the game at Old Trafford on Wednesday night but an inability to add to Jonny Evans’ first-half goal meant the tie was still precariously poised going into extra time.
Ex-Red Phil Bardsley turned the game on its head with a late goal in the added period, only for Javier Hernandez to score a dramatic, 120th-minute tie-leveller.
But the Black Cats then prevailed 2-1 on penalties to book a Wembley date with Manchester City, leaving Moyes with no complaints.
The manager told MUTV: “We probably haven’t played well enough tonight to merit going through, but we were getting there. We had hung on.
“We had defended well enough in the end to make sure we were going to see the game out at 1-0. But it changed, and credit to the lads. They got themselves a goal again.
“But I’ve got no complaints. I just don’t think we had a level of performance that merited winning the game more comfortably, and that’s what I was looking for.
Trailing 2-1 from the first leg, United levelled the tie through Jonny Evans’s 37th-minute header, only for Phil Bardsley to net a dramatic equaliser late in extra time with a low shot that squirmed past David de Gea.
United promptly went straight up to the other end and equalised through Javier Hernandez, for 3-3 on aggregate and sending the tie to penalties, but it was to prove a false dawn.
An appalling shoot-out saw only three of the 10 penalty-takers score, but United full-back Rafael da Silva proved the fall guy, with Vito Mannone saving his spot-kick to give Sunderland a 2-1 win.
Second from bottom in the Premier League, Gus Poyet’s side can now look forward to a clash with Manchester City in the final on March 2, in what will be their first major final since 1992.
For David Moyes, meanwhile, the misery continues, with a first final as United manager snatched from his grasp only days after defeat at Chelsea saw his side fall 14 points off the pace in the league.
.From Man United website and AFP