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Friday, 27 January 2017
Hull City 2 Man Utd 1 (2-3 on agg): Paul Pogba takes Jose Mourinho one step closer to first trophy at United
Paul Pogba scored United's crucial away goal
The 12th cup final of Jose
Mourinho’s career awaits at Wembley on Feb 26, and as with most of these
occasions in his glittering career he will be expecting to win it,
although you could hardly say that his Manchester United team sailed
through this semi-final as they might have anticipated.
The song the away support sung relentlessly on this cold Humberside
night was their new composition to the tune of Herman’s Hermits’ I’m
into something good, that declares boldly that “Jose’s got United
playing the way they should”.
They won this EFL Cup semi-final
tie but they lost on the night to a resolute Hull City and in doing so a
17-game unbeaten run that stretches back to the start of November.
The United manager was in denial about Hull’s first goal, struck from
the spot by Tom Huddlestone, after a controversial penalty decision by
referee Jon Moss, and he will choose to look at the bigger picture.
They face a difficult run of fixtures with the derby game against
Manchester City next month now requiring rescheduling but they have the
chance to win a first trophy of the Mourinho era, and his fourth career
League Cup.
He was in a bad mood afterwards, and will have been concerned at how
marginalised Paul Pogba was for long periods, although the midfielder
did score the crucial goal that saw United through to the final against
Southampton. The glass half-empty version is that they have not won any
of their last three games, although the weekend FA Cup fourth-round tie
at home to Wigan Athletic will give them a chance to rest a few.
Tom Huddlestone gave Hull the lead from the penalty spotCredit:
getty images
On the night they agreed to sell
their best player, Robert Snodgrass, to West Ham, the perennially
dysfunctional Hull were superb, especially Huddlestone, who ran the
midfield and then Oumar Niasse who got the winner late on. Marco Silva,
the Hull manager, was unusually laid-back at the prospect of the
Snodgrass deal going through within “hours” he said, and revealed that
the Scotland international had not been training with the first-team
squad in recent days in anticipation of leaving.
There is a malaise around Hull that was reflected by the many empty
seats in the home area before kick-off but it was notable that as the
team got their act together, so the atmosphere grew. Silva made seven
changes to the team that lost to Chelsea and there was a good mix in a
first XI that included nine British and Irish players and more than its
fair share of occasional misfits, one-time rejects, and underachievers.
Huddlestone and Sam Clucas got the better of Pogba and Michael Carrick
while Niasse, frozen out at Everton, looked like he had a point to
prove.
United will now be favourites to triumph over Southampton in the EFL Cup finalCredit:
pa
Silva might be a novice in the
English game but for now he seems as willing as any manager to trust in
young unproven English talent, selecting the 20-year-old Jarrod Bowen
and the 17-year-old Josh Tymon in the same side.
Carrick and Marcus Rashford came back into the United team, albeit
with the latter playing on the left wing and Jesse Lingard on the
opposite side. Playing in the No 10 role, Pogba looked like a man trying
to find a foothold in the game. Zlatan Ibrahimovic was afforded just
one chance when he had Michael Dawson retreating and forced a good save
from David Marshall, back in goal for Hull.
On 34 minutes referee Moss spotted Marcos Rojo’s shirt pull on Harry
Maguire as the Hull centre-half moved through the box at a corner on 34
minutes. There were the predictable displays of disbelief from the
United players on behalf of their team-mate but no question that Rojo
had hold of his opponent.
Pogba scored United's crucial away goal
Huddlestone could not disguise
his intention to strike the ball low to David De Gea’s right but he hit
it cleanly and precisely enough that it was past the United goalkeeper
before he could get down to save. This looked like it could be
Huddlestone’s night with his passing for the main part, crisp and
intelligent but he was to be unlucky on United’s goal.
United had been given due warning earlier when Huddlestone had lobbed
the ball back into the area and Dawson had killed it beautifully only
for Rojo to sweep in and make a good challenge.
Mourinho was raging seven minutes into the second half when
Huddlestone had leant into Chris Smalling in the area and knocked him
over and United certainly had a case.
In the meantime, the Hull manager Silva had gambled again, bringing
on the new Brazilian signing Evandro and Lazar Markovic, newly loaned
from Liverpool, to try to get the second goal which would take the game
into extra-time. “This boy is a very good manager,” Mourinho said later
of his compatriot. “I said this from the start.”
Huddlestone was being given a lot of time to run the game and yet he
was doing his defensive work too and it was when he managed to get a
foot to the ball as Rashford ran into the box that the goal eventually
came for United. Running onto the ball, and making easily his most
significant contribution of the evening was Pogba who, it should be
said, finished neatly by stroking his shot past Marshall into the far
corner.
Oumar Niasse's goal gave Hull victory on the night, but was not enough to win over the two legsCredit:
pa
It left Hull requiring two goals
to take the game into extra-time and they never gave up the ghost.
Niasse clattered a header against the bar with 12 minutes left and he
scored the winner on the night with six minutes remaining. That came
from David Meyler’s cross from the right which the Senegalese striker
was in the right place to finish. He deserved it.
Late on in the game there was one of those runs from Maguire that can
end up anywhere but unfortunately for Hull there was not the shot to
match this time. United held out, in part you thought because they could
hardly bear to face their manager having chucked this one away.
Mourinho claimed a draw and Silva, new to this English game, just
chuckled and said he could see why his friend might think that.
After a quite dismal opening 15
minutes or so that turned into a rather entertaining game thanks mainly
to a cracking effort from Hull. They may have been fortunate with their
first-half penalty but the home side showed enough endeavour to inflict a
first defeat on United in 17 matches. Play like that over the coming
months and they stand a decent chance of avoiding relegation. Alas,
United's two-goal advantage from the first leg was crucial and Jose
Mourinho will fancy winning his first trophy with the club when they
take on Southampton at Wembley at the end of February.
Manchester United will play Southampton in the EFL Cup final. A PLAYER TOOK TO TWEET
