Sunderland Shock Manchester United, Face City in Final

 2-2(pen.)

The second leg of the Capital One Cup semifinal between Manchester United and Sunderland took place today at Old Trafford.  Sunderland came into the match with a 2-1 lead having beaten United in the first match of the semifinal.  Manchester City already won the other spot in the final beating West Ham United 9-0 over their two semifinal matches.

Manchester United found a groove late in the first-half and scored on a set-piece.  Danny Welbeck was able to get a flick on a corner-kick to setup defender Jonny Evans.  Crashing the back-post, Evans finished with a header to level the aggregate score (37').  

The second-half of the match was played out with either side taking the lead and extra-time was therefore required.  Away-goals were not a factor in regulation, but now in extra-time, United's away goal in the first match gave them the lead.  Sunderland therefore had to score to keep their hopes alive.

No goals were scored in the first-half of extra-time, but in the last moments of the second-half two miracles occurred.  First Sunderland scored the goal they needed when defender Phillip Bardsley's shot ended up in the net.  Bardsley found a window to shoot and sent a weak rolling shot towards goal.  Keeper De Gea had the shot covered, but was not sure-handed and let the ball slip out of his grasp and into his goal (119').  

The late goal by Sunderland seemed like a death-blow to United and the fans started heading for the exits.  However they came running back to their seats when Hernandez saved them from defeat seconds later.  Januzaj played a ball across the face of goal and Hernandez was at the back-post to smash it home (120 +1').  

The late equalizer gave United a chance to win in a penalty shootout, no one more thankful than keeper De Gea.  Unfortunately for United the two hour match had taken its toll and their finishing from the spot was quite bad.  Januzaj and Rafael had their shots saved and Welbeck and Jones missed the target completely.  Sunderland only scored two of their penalty kicks, but it was enough to advance to the final.

The final will be played at Wembley Stadium on March 2nd.  It won't be an all Manchester final, but Manchester City are the easy favorites to win that match-up.  Anything can happen of course and Sunderland have shown serious resilience in their run to the final.

Chelsea Knock Out Arsenal From Football League Cup

 0-2 

Cross-town English giants Arsenal and Chelsea squared off in a Capital One Football League Cup match today, the latter coming off a win against Manchester City just two days ago.  Not surprisingly Chelsea manager José Mourinho rested everyone used in the weekend match except defender Gary Cahill.  Similarly Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger sat all but three players from the weekend match.  The changes to Arsenal's line-up proved to be more costly than Chelsea's as the defense was not always on the same page.

For the second game in a row, Chelsea scored as a result of a bad header by an opposing defender to their keeper.  Chelsea defended an Arsenal corner-kick successfully and managed to break out on a counter-attack.  Carl Jenkinson attempted to play a header back to his keeper, but he did not get enough power on the ball and César Azpilicueta was ready to poke the ball in for Chelsea (25').

Mesut Özil and Olivier Giroud were inserted into Arsenal's line-up in the second-half, but could not produce a goal.  Instead Chelsea extended their lead thanks to Juan Mata.  With his first touch Mata settled the ball before ripping a shot from just outside the penalty box to beat the keeper (66').

This fourth round meeting knocks Arsenal out of the tournament.  The clubs have two Premier League meetings with both still serious contenders for league champions.  There is also still a chance Arsenal and Chelsea meet in the Champions League and you can bet Arsenal would love to return the favor.

Manchester United Top Liverpool in Cup Play

1-0

The first big match-up in the 2013-14 Football League Cup, or Capital One Cup, came today with Manchester United hosting Liverpool.  In the third round match Manchester United elected to start Hernandez at striker who hasn't seen much action this season playing behind Van Persie.  Luis Suarez hasn't seen much action lately either, but with his suspension complete Liverpool welcomed him back into the starting line-up.

United had the hot start today with Rooney and Kagawa looking spry at Old Trafford.  Liverpool survived the early barrage though and got Sturridge and Suarez involved.  By half-time no goals were scored, but the match was wide open.

Manchester started the second-half better than the first and quickly scored from a set-piece.  Rooney delivered the corner into the box that Hernandez finished.  The Mexican striker attacked the service at the near-post and turned the shot into Liverpool's net (46').

Liverpool managed a few good shots after conceding the goal, but Rooney and United were able to keep up the attack and keep Liverpool's defense busy.  No other goals were scored and United move to the next round.