It came down to the dying minutes of the game for Manchester United to snatch the EFL Cup away from Southampton, as they fought hard to try and defeat the Red Devils.
On Sunday afternoon the two sides kicked off the first final of the season in English soccer at Wembley in London. Heading into the game Manchester United looked the stronger side. United manager Joe Mourinho especially is not short of successes in the League cup, having won the competition three times with Chelsea. Likewise Man United have enjoyed terrific success in the cup, this will be their ninth appearance in a league cup final. However, this is overshadowed by the fact that they have only won half of their last eight.
Southampton, on the other hand, hasn’t had great success in recent years, their last appearance at Wembley was in 2010 when they won the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.
Manchester United and Southampton have so far met once this season which came in the Premier League. United came away from that game 2-0 victory thanks to a brace from Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Could the big Swede prove vital to United’s game plan today?
Given United’s potential dominance on paper Southampton did have a really good start in the match. In the 10th minute, Southampton appeared to have scored. Cedric squared a pass for Gabbiadini in the center of the box where he then slotted home. The linesman then flagged for offside but neither Cedric or Gabbiadini were offside. Nathan Redmond was offside but not involved in the play and so making the linesman’s decision wrong! Southampton should have had an early goal but unfortunately, found it wrongly ruled out. Despite United having most of the possession, Southampton looked much the smarter team.
Then the breakthrough came. It was that man, Zlatan Ibrahimovic. United gained a free-kick in a promising position, thanks to a poor tackle from Romeu on Ander Herrera. Zlatan then stepped up to take the resulting free kick. He then gracefully whipped the ball up and over the wall before it nestled in the bottom left-hand corner. A truly fantastic free kick in an important game for the club. United’s goal then completely changed the tone of the match. Beforehand Southampton appeared to be on top but from here onwards United dominated possession until the 38th minute where United struck again, this time through Jese Lingard. Marcos Rojo put in a fantastic cross for Lingard who calmly finished into the bottom right-hand corner to put Manchester United 2-0 up. Then on the brink of half-time in the 45+1 minute, Southampton fought back. Ward-Browse found space on the right wing and was able to swing in a cross to the near post where Gabbiadini managed to finish the first time. This gave Southampton the boost they needed heading into the second half.
The Saints then came out after half time looking dangerous and it paid off. In the 48th minute once again, that man Gabbiadini found space in the box and finished with a fantastic half volley which rocketed into the bottom right corner. From this point onwards at 2-2 the game was incredibly close. Exciting end to end soccer as neither side could take the lead until the 87th minute. If there was ever a man on the pitch to win a cup final it would just have to be Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the Swede won the game for the Manchester side with a header from around 6 yards out.
What a cup final.
