Rohan Sengupta
Korey Smith scored late on as Bristol City beat Manchester United 2-1 to knock the EFL Cup holders out of the competition on a famous night. Smith’s turn and strike in the final minute of added time booked Bristol a semi-final clash against Premier League leaders Manchester City.
United twice hit the woodwork in the first half as Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s pull-back came off the bar before Marcus Rashford thundered a 25-yard effort off the post.
Jose Mourinho’s men started the second half brightly, but it was Bristol City who took the lead in some style through Joe Bryan, six minutes after the restart. Bryan’s rasping left-foot strike across goal into the top corner gave the Robins a shock lead at a packed Ashton Gate.
Their advantage lasted just eight minutes, with Ibrahimovic marking his first start since 20 April with a vicious low free-kick past Luke Steele. After the equaliser, goalkeeper Steele produced two brilliant saves to deny Romelu Lukaku, who was brought on with half an hour to go.
Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial curled further efforts wide of the post on either side of the break, while the Red Devils also failed to make the most of clear openings on the counter-attack.
Despite the nervy moments, Bristol players kept their cool and were finally rewarded for their patience as Smith kept his calm by stroking home a famous winner to send Ashton Gate into ruptures and United out of the competition.
Hugely disappointed with the lackadaisical performance, United fans vented out their frustration on Twitter. Read on.
If United want to be champions Blind, Darmian, Fellaini, Mata & Mkhi must go. Blind & Darmian are average. Shaw is better & younger than Young. Mata & Mkhi are too inconsistent. Play Tuanzebe, Fosu-Mensah & Pereira some more instead. Sign Fabinho & Zaha or Malcolm. #mufc
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@ronaldo7goal) December 20, 2017
You’ll never understand the rage flowing through my body as I tweet this. Disgraceful.
— JM (@Mourinholic) December 20, 2017
3 dreadful performances in a row with awful football …Tell Louis Van Gaal to take his Mourinho costume off
— Tom (@FUNKYT0WN49) December 20, 2017
with Lukaku, Ibrahimovic, Martial, Rashford and Pogba we couldn’t beat Bristol. None of them are fit to wear the shirt.
— JustRedDevils (@JustRedDevils) December 20, 2017
We really need to clear out deadwood aswell, players like Darmian and Blind don’t deserve to play for united they are not united quality! Bring in some new talent and get rid of deadwood and I think we could be seeing better performances
— Davex (@Davex_07) December 20, 2017
— OÖ (@mightyhet) December 20, 2017
WTF WAS ROMERO DOING FFSSSSS
— Steven (@OneFootValencia) December 20, 2017
Team of the past
— Leon Long (@Leonpheon) December 20, 2017
Mourinho isn’t special anymore, the boring one! pic.twitter.com/K6zBp2Jyvm
— A true patriot (@trueblue9877) December 20, 2017
— Joar Eidsør Johansen (@Joarjohansen) December 20, 2017
— Toby Berzer (@YodaFath) December 20, 2017
Now Jose has to go
— Reece (@rpoller16) December 20, 2017
— Gary (@MinimumMensah) December 20, 2017
— ً (@kavque) December 20, 2017
