(Football news) The beauty of cup competitions is that it features shock upsets, the opportunity for lower league teams to face the best in the country and a rare chance for any team to have a shot at glory. The first surprise result in the Carabao Cup was when Queens Park Rangers knocked out Premier League side Everton on penalty shoot-outs to progress to the next round.
Mark Warburton’s side put up a spirited display at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium, taking the lead twice in normal time thanks to two goals from Charlie Austin. However, goals from Lucas Digne and Andros Townsend levelled the scoring for the Toffees which led to the eventual penalty shoot-out. QPR headed into their Carabao Cup fixture with back to back losses in the Championship, but dominated proceedings, especially in the first half.
The penalty shoot-out saw the first 14 attempts put away with both sides converting seven penalties each. However, Everton’s Davies saw his penalty saved by Dieng and QPR’s Jimmy Dunne scored his decisive penalty to help his side proceed to the fourth round of the Carabao Cup.
Meanwhile at the Etihad Stadium, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City cruised past Wycombe Wanderers in the third round of the Carabao Cup which featured many young debutants. Two goals from Riyad Mahrez, one from Phil Foden, Kevin De Bruyne, Ferran Torres and Cole Palmer gave the League One side a 6-1 thrashing by the current Champions of England.
However, it looked like a very different scoreline in the 22nd minute when Wycombe did the unthinkable by scoring a goal in the 22nd minute, courtesy of Brandon Hanlan. Ahead of this fixture, City manager Pep Guardiola had promised to give youngsters a chance and five teenagers – Conrad Egan-Riley, Finley Burns, Luke Mbete, Josh Wilson-Ebrand and Romeo Lavia started the game, albeit in defensive positions.
Interestingly, Wycome Wanderers forward Adebayo Akinfenwa, age 39 was ready to challenge the young and inexperienced City defense, none of which were born when the forward won his first honours in Lithuania. However, despite getting the lead, Wycome could not cope with the lethal quality of City’s attack and conceded six goals to get knocked out of the Carabao Cup.
At Carrow Road, a brace from Takumi Minamino and a header from Divock Origi was all it took for Liverpool to progress to the fourth round of the Carabao Cup after a 3-0 win against Norwich City. Both clubs made a total of 18 changes and Liverpool got the early lead within 4 minutes when Minamino scored past the Norwich defense. The Canaries had the chance to equalize before the break when they were awarded a penalty, but the weak attempt was saved by Liverpool goalkeeper Kelleher. Origi scored his first goal in 12 months to double the lead and Minamino’s second clinched the win.
The draw for the fourth round will take place after Manchester United’s third round clash against West Ham which begins at 12:15 am IST on 23rd September.
Fourth round: October 26 and 27
Quarter finals: December 21 and 22
Semi finals: January 4/5 and 11/12
Final: February 27
