Bristol explodes in extra time, kicks MU out of the League Cup

MU no longer has a chance to defend the League Cup title they are holding after surprisingly losing 1-2 to hosts Bristol City in the quarter-finals.

Bristol: Joe Bryan (51'), Smith (90'+3)

MU: Ibrahimovic (58')

After MU has gone through many matches in the Premier League recently, coach Jose Mourinho was forced to make some adjustments in the away match against Bristol. Although he left De Gea, Nemanja Matic and Ander Herrera and Romelu Lukaku on the bench, with the remaining stars, the Red Devils are still rated higher than the home team.

However, Bristol showed that they are not an easy opponent for MU. Before entering this match, coach Lee Johnson's team also made a strong impression in the League Cup. On the journey to this quarter-final, Bristol City defeated 3 Premier League teams: Watford, Stoke and Crystal Palace, all with surprising scores.

Bristol City are the first lower league side to knock out three Premier League clubs since Bradford City in 2012/13. The only team to have beaten four Premier League clubs was Sheffield Wednesday in 1990/91, who went on to win the title. That must have been a huge boost for Bristol City, especially as Sheffield Wednesday also beat Man United on their way to glory that year. In hindsight, it could be seen as a bad omen for the Red Devils.

Perhaps that's why in the first 45 minutes, Bristol played with passion and excitement while MU did not play very impressively. The presence of Paul Pogba and the mobility of Martial - Rashford helped MU hold the ball more and organize many situations to attack the goal, but there were not many dangerous situations.

In the second half, MU pushed up their formation with the determination to win in the official match time. But when the away team had not yet materialized their chances into goals, they conceded a goal. In the 51st minute, Bryan brought joy to the fans at Ashton Gate after a beautiful finish from the left wing that left goalkeeper Romero helpless.

But Bristol's joy only lasted six minutes. Striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic marked his first official match for MU since April 2017 with a low, tricky free kick, equalizing for the defending League Cup champions. Thus, Ibra also scored his first goal for MU in the 2017/18 season.

In the next period of the match, both teams played very excitingly and Romero and Steele both had to work very hard. It was not until the 3rd minute of injury time that Bristol took advantage of a mistake in marking by the MU defense to get the 2nd goal. This time, the scorer for the home team was Korey Smith with a neat finish in the 16m50 box.

Winning 2-1, Bristol turned MU into the former champion of this tournament and confidently advanced to the semi-finals of the League Cup.

LINEUP

Bristol: Steele, Flint, Magnusson (Taylor 69'), Baker, Bryan, Wright, Smith, Pack, Reid, Paterson, Brownhill (Eliasson 74').

MU: Romero, Darmian (Smalling 90'+5), Blind (Lukaku 61'), Rojo, Lindelof, Shaw, Pogba, McTominay, Ibrahimovic (Mkhitaryan 69'), Martial, Rashford.

According to Bongdaplus