The League Cup has been extremely good to Jose Mourinho since he arrived in England in 2004 but on Wednesday it dealt him and his Manchester United side a hefty blow as they were knocked out at the quarter-final stage by Bristol City.
Mourinho is a four-time winner of the competition and had never previously been eliminated over 90 minutes in his eight seasons in the country, but the 2-1 loss suffered by United to the second-tier Robins was a more than fair reflection of the evening’s proceedings as the holders were outdone for work ethic, character and attitude long before Korey Smith’s dramatic 93rd-minute winner.
United looked off their game from the start. The returning Zlatan Ibrahimovic looked a long way shy of fully fit as he stumbled his way through the first half, while Paul Pogba was perhaps lucky not to see red for a knee-high challenge on his comeback following a three-man ban for his sending-off at Arsenal earlier this month.
Elsewhere, theire was a omplacent air about some of United’s play, and while a deflected Ibrahimovic header and a Marcus Rashford pile-driver both came back off the post, there remained a feeling that the home side were more than in the contest throughout.
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