Manchester United Eliminated From Carling Cup
The Carling Cup, or what is better known as The Football League Cup is competed by 92 English football clubs. There are the 20 clubs that are part of the English Premier League plus the 72 other teams that make up the English Football League. Most of the time, the teams of the English Premier League are expected to win just because they have some bigger football names representing their squad. However, there can be exceptions.
In the recent third round of the 2007-2008 Carling Cup tournament, English Premier League champions Manchester United were handed a defeat courtesy of Coventry City Sky Blues, who play at the Coca-Cola Championship, which is the second-highest tier of the English football league system. Coventry City were visitors at Manchester United’s home pitch of Old Trafford, and it seemed that Manchester United would have the advantage of being on their home ground.
Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson opted for a younger squad and tapped on the reserves to represent his team. Coventry City took full advantage of the inexperienced side, and came away with 2 goals to defeat Manchester United 2-0.
Maltese striker Michael Mifsud scored both goals for Coventry. In the 27th minute Michael Misfud slid in at the far post to score a low cross from Coventry team mate Michael Doyle. Misfud’s second goal came in the 70th minute when he played a wonderfully crafted one-two with Jay Tabb, which saw Misfud smashing the ball into the goal beyond the reach of Manchester United keeper Tomasz Kuszczak who was given a start over regular starting keeper Edwin van der Sar.
Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson doesn’t have any excuses, and is just utterly disappointed witht the performance of his young reserves.
“That was an absolutely flabbergasting performance, I didn’t expect that. I’m not interested in giving reasons, it was just a bad performance,” Ferguson said.
However, no one can doubt the magnificent performance of Michael Misfud, who scored both goals for Coventry to hand Manchester United a 2-0 defeat.
“Obviously I was overjoyed to score two goals at Old Trafford – it will be a memory I will carry with me for the rest of my life… I like to keep my feet firmly on the ground but scoring two goals against Man United is not a frequent event for any player,” Michael Misfud explained.
Coventry City now advance to the 4th round of the Carling Cup with only 16 teams left in the competition.
Meanwhile, Manchester United will just hope for a better performance in their other quests for silverware, such as the 2007-08 UEFA Champions League tournament and their title defense of the English Premier League championship.
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