Darmian Drops A 3/10 In League Cup Defeat

Last updated : 21 December 2017 By Scott Patterson, ESPN

Manchester United are current holders of the EFL Cup but won't have the opportunity to defend it any further after losing to Bristol City in injury time.

Jose Mourinho claimed that United weren't necessarily favourites ahead of kick-off, after the other Premier League opposition that Bristol had convincingly beaten to reach this round, and this prediction proved correct.

Bristol started the better of the two sides but United came back into the game and were denied twice by the woodwork in the first half. It was Bristol who took the lead though thanks to a brilliant goal from Joe Bryan, before Zlatan Ibrahimovic equalised in his first start since returning from injury.

Substitute Romelu Lukaku forced some top saves from Luke Steele before Korey Smith scored a deserved winner with just 30 seconds of injury time left to play.

 

Positives

Ibrahimovic didn't have a good game at all but at least he got on the scoresheet. He looked a shadow of his former self but to score the equaliser was an important moment for him in his bid to make it back.

United fans can at least feel relieved that they don't have to get knocked out by Manchester City, Chelsea or Arsenal, which is what would happen in the next round if they put in another performance like that of Wednesday night.

Negatives

With an easy draw, United didn't have half the fighting spirit and positive mentality of their opposition. The chances of going on to win this competition were slim but that doesn't change that United could have been one step closer to winning silverware if they had shown up on Wednesday night.

Matteo Darmian was appalling but nobody came out of the 90 minutes looking great.

All player ratings here

 

Written by Scott Patterson, ESPN