On this day in 2014, a Giggs own goal and a Borini penalty gave Sunderland an advantage heading into Old Trafford with a Wembley appearance on the line…
We all remember the scenes at Old Trafford, the penalty shootout, Vito’s heroics. But before that came a nervy affair at the SoL. Fans were pessimistic going into the game, hence the 18,000 empty seats for a League Cup semi-final first leg. Not to mention a lot of fans were saving their hard-earned money for a Manchester takeover in the second leg!
Sunderland had the trio of ex-Manchester United defenders in the backline: Bardsley, O’Shea and Brown. And Moyes, in charge of United, had selected former SAFC loanees Jonny Evans and Danny Welbeck to start, as well as future Sunderland flop Adnan Januzaj. Incredibly, Ryan Giggs was also starting that day and was more than twice as old as Januzaj at 40 years old.
It was also Marcos Alonso’s Sunderland debut after signing from Fiorentina. He was impressive throughout, and whipped a couple of dangerous crosses in the box. Gus Poyet’s lads looked good on the counter attack without creating anything of note, and the feeling was that we had to make one of these chances count before long.
But we thought United had gone ahead when Giggs thundered a left-footed shot from 20 yards, which took a deflection off Giaccherini and smashed off the bar. Januzaj, who was young enough to be Giggs’ son, found the back of the net after his initial shot was blocked by the Welshman’s back. But Giggs was correctly flagged offside so luckily for the Black Cats it stayed 0-0.
And in injury time of the first half we went ahead as Seb Larsson fired a deep free kick towards the back post. Wes Brown volleyed it back across goal for a combination of Bardo and Giggs to bundle the ball over the line. The first half ended 1-0 to Sunderland, and we had proved good value for the lead.
Disappointingly, the away team levelled just six minutes into the second half through Namanja Vidic. The Serbian hardman towered above John O’Shea and Wes Brown for a free header from Tom Cleverly’s corner. Mannone was rooted to his line, despite the shot coming from in his six-yard box. A pretty cheap goal to give away from a defensive point of view.
The equaliser led to an entertaining second half, which was played in a frenzy of half-chances. And Adam Johnson won a penalty after being brought down by Cleverly in the box as the pair’s legs became tangled. Initially referee Andre Marriner looked to wave play on, but the linesman flagged for a penalty and a spot kick was given in controversial circumstances.
Up stepped Fabio Borini who sent De Gea the wrong way, smashing the ball comfortably into the roof of the net. An emphatic penalty from our loan star which ended Man United’s seven-game unbeaten run away from home, and sent us to Old Trafford with a lead to hold onto.
Poyet said: "We know how difficult it will be at Old Trafford. We know how good they are, but to have a chance you need to take advantage of the home leg. We scored the two goals to give us that little advantage. We are going to try and play our game at Old Trafford. It is not a bad result but of course it is going to be very difficult.”
Of course, SAFC went on to win a nail-biting penalty shootout and secure their place at Wembley for the first time since 1992.
