By Alan Duffy
Manchester United 2-1 Sunderland (Agg 3-3, Pens 1-2)- Capital One Cup Semi-Final 2nd Leg – 22nd January 2014
Well you’ll have to look far and wide to find a worse example of a penalty shoot-out than that which ultimately dumped Man Utd out of the Capital One Cup and Sunderland into the final. The game itself saw the Black Cats deserve something from the game, only for Phil Bardsley late effort (fumbled dreadfully by David De Gea) crossed out by Javier Hernandez’s winner just two minutes later, and on the stroke of 120 minutes. Jonny Evans had put the home side a goal up in the first-half but the real drama came after the 120 minutes were up.
Out of the 10 penalties taken, the only ones scored came courtesy of Darren Fletcher, Marcos Alonso and Ki Sung-Yeung. United’s penalty-fluffers were Danny Welbeck, Adnan Januzaj, Phil Jones (a particularly bad effort) and finally Rafael, whose penalty was saved by Vito Mannone to send the Black Cats to Wembley. Sunderland’s spot-kick missers were Craig Gardner, Steven Fletcher and Adam Johnson.
A right shambles of a spot-kick finale but one which is sure to give Gus Poyet a huge lift, even though his side are likely to be hammered by Man City in the final. As for David Moyes, things go from bad to worse.
Photos…
[Not a valid template]Highlights…
Photos: PA
Highlights: 101gg