Carabao Cup
MOURINHO ON COURSE FOR 1ST TROPHY WITH SPURS
Son Heung-min fired Tottenham into the League Cup final as the South Korean’s decisive goal sealed a 2-0 win over Championship side Brentford on Tuesday (Jan 5).
Moussa Sissoko put Jose Mourinho’s team ahead in the semi-final at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
But Tottenham were still searching for the knockout blow against spirited Brentford until Son netted with 20 minutes remaining.
Tottenham will face Manchester United or holders Manchester City, who meet in the second semi-final on Wednesday, at Wembley on April 25.
It will be the club’s first domestic final since losing the 2015 League Cup showpiece against Chelsea, and their first final in any competition since the 2019 Champions League defeat against Liverpool in Madrid.
“The final is now in a pocket for three months, we have to wait for the final so we have to focus on what we have coming up,” Mourinho said. “We have the FA Cup, the Premier League, the Europa League, so let’s forget the final for now. But when April arrives we have to be ready and to fight for the trophy.”
The Portuguese, appointed in November 2019, is hoping to lead Tottenham to their first major trophy since the 2008 League Cup.
He has already won the competition four times, landing his first silverware in English football in 2005 with Chelsea, where he won it twice more before a further success at Manchester United in 2017.
Mourinho is the third manager to reach a League Cup final with three different clubs, following Ron Atkinson and Ron Saunders.
“This is a game that takes us to a final. Of course we are very, very happy with this,” Mourinho said. “We didn’t play brilliantly, sometimes (there were) wrong decisions, sometimes one more touch, not with that soft control that allows you to play fast but the game is always under control against a team that will probably be in the Premier League next year.”
The Tottenham boss had labelled Brentford’s visit to north London as the biggest game of his reign, so it was no surprise he picked Son and Harry Kane in a team featuring five changes from Saturday’s Premier League win over Leeds.
Crucial moment
Brentford, fourth in the Championship, had already beaten four Premier League clubs in Southampton, Newcastle, Fulham and West Bromwich Albion to reach their first domestic cup semi-final.
But Tottenham needed just 12 minutes to take the lead as Sergio Reguilon’s pin-point cross from the left evaded Brentford defender Ethan Pinnock and found Sissoko, who finished his burst into the six-yard box with a powerful header into the top corner.
It was the French midfielder’s first goal since December 2019, ending a barren run that had stretched to 36 matches.
Tottenham pressed hard for a second goal and Son’s long-range drive forced a good save from David Raya, who had to stretch to tip away Lucas Moura’s deflected header just before half-time.
Serge Aurier shot wastefully over from a good position early in the second half, a mistake made worse as the unmarked Kane was waiting for a pass with the goal at his mercy.
Son flashed a volley just wide from Sissoko’s cross, but Tottenham escaped in the 63rd minute when Ivan Toney’s equaliser was disallowed by VAR.
When Pinnock’s header was clawed away by Hugo Lloris, Toney stabbed in the rebound from close-range, only for the Brentford striker’s celebrations to be curtailed when his knee was seen to be in an offside position.
That tight decision proved the crucial moment as Son struck in the 70th minute.
Kane fed Tanguy Ndombele and the midfielder’s defence-splitting pass teed up Son, who fired high into the roof of the net for his 16th goal of the season.
Brentford’s Josh Dasilva was sent off in the 84th minute for a studs-up foul on Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg that left the furious Tottenham midfielder with blood running down his shin.
-AFP
August is not yet over, the season is only three games old, yet Manchester United find themselves at a familiar crossroads.
Ruben Amorim’s future as head coach is no longer whispered speculation—it is now the subject of his own public hints, with the international break looming as a possible inflexion point.
The bluntness of Amorim’s words after United’s humiliating exit at the hands of League Two side Grimsby Town was striking.
Defeat on penalties after clawing back from two goals down was bad enough, but the symbolism of being outworked and outfought by a rotated fourth-tier team cut deeper.
Amorim’s candour in interviews—telling ITV that “you’re not going to change 22 players again” and that “something has to change”—suggested a man weighing whether to walk away before being pushed.
The optics could hardly have been worse. Amorim trudged back onto the pitch at Blundell Park to the taunts of jubilant home supporters chanting “sacked in the morning.”
The narrow walkways, cramped dugouts, and fans heckling United’s £700m squad offered a setting that underscored how far the club’s prestige has slipped. Even Matthijs de Ligt resorted to sitting on the floor for lack of bench space, a scene that felt like parody.
Behind the scenes, the defeat complicates the delicate power structure reshaping Old Trafford. Chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox, both hired from Manchester City to inject competence, now find their reputations bound to Amorim’s.
They must answer to Sir Jim Ratcliffe, whose firm grip on football matters means he will ultimately decide whether Amorim is worth persisting with. Ratcliffe admires Amorim’s directness, but admiration may not outweigh results.
Amorim’s frustrations are not new. As recently as pre-season, he admitted he had considered his position before recommitting to the project.
Optimism appeared to return over the summer, but the fragile unity has evaporated quickly. His repeated claim that the players “spoke loudly with their actions” was not so much a critique of effort as an indictment of systemic malaise.
The failings in Grimsby were not limited to individuals, though goalkeeper Andre Onana’s calamitous errors highlighted United’s lack of reliability at key moments. Amorim was quick to deflect blame from his keeper, but his remark that “this is a fourth-division team, Andre should play just with his feet” captured the gulf between expectations and reality.
That gulf is the essence of United’s crisis. The infrastructure brought in by Ratcliffe and Berrada is meant to harden the club’s soft underbelly, yet here were United bullied by Grimsby reserves. The culture Berrada spoke about instilling—courage, pride, and resilience—looked like empty rhetoric on a rain-soaked night in Cleethorpes.
Burnley visit Old Trafford on Saturday in what now feels like a precarious fixture. The two-week pause that follows gives space for reflection but also invites speculation. Amorim’s language has ensured that speculation will intensify, whether or not results improve immediately.
In that sense, the Portuguese coach has shifted the spotlight. By acknowledging so openly that “something has to change,” he has forced United’s hierarchy to show their hand.
Either they back him more firmly than ever—or they accelerate a search for alternatives. What is clear is that United’s season, just three games old, already carries the weight of existential questions.
Adapted from The New York Times
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Manchester United plumbed new depths as fourth-tier Grimsby Town knocked them out of the League Cup 12-11 on penalties after a 2-2 draw on a tumultuous night at Blundell Park on Wednesday.
Goals by Charles Vernam and former Manchester United youth player Tyrell Warren put the hosts in charge of the second-round tie by halftime against the six-time winners.
But after thunder and lightning and a torrential rain squall, United finally came to their senses with Bryan Mbeumo’s first goal for his new club offering them an escape route.
Grimsby defended their lead valiantly but Harry Maguire’s 89th-minute header sent the tie to penalties.
A nerve-shredding shootout that lasted 18 minutes saw Matheus Cunha have his effort saved when he had the chance to seal it for United. The next 15 penalties were all scored before Mbeumo struck the crossbar to send the home fans into delirium.
United manager Ruben Amorim watched the penalties hunkered down in the dugout and the Portuguese coach, who replaced Erik ten Hag last season, will now find himself under intense scrutiny after a horror show on the banks of the Humber River.
“I know that the best team won, the only team that was on the pitch, the best players lose,” a cryptic Amorim told Sky Sports. “I think that the team and the players spoke really loud today, so that’s it, we lost, the best team won.”
There were no such problems for the other Premier League sides in action with Brighton and Hove Albion winning 6-0 at Oxford United, Everton beating Mansfield Town 2-0 and Fulham overcoming second-tier Bristol City 2-0.
After picking up one point from their opening two Premier League games, this was supposed to be the night United got their season moving. Instead they suffered embarrassment in the fishing town and the sharks are now circling for Amorim.
BIG-MONEY SIGNINGS
Since being appointed he has taken 28 points from his first 29 Premier League games and steered United to their worst season since 1974. He has been backed in the transfer window with some big-money signings but on the evidence so far he is no closer to reversing the club’s decline.
Amorim gave a first start to 73 million pounds ($99 million) signing Benjamin Sesko and also included Kobbie Mainoo for his first appearance of the season while Andre Onana was back in goal after being left out for the first two games.
United were shambolic in the first half and Grimsby, unbeaten in League Two, deservedly went ahead in the 22nd minute when Darragh Burns picked out Vernam who calmly controlled the ball before rifling a shot that beat Onana at his near post.
Grimsby, facing United for the first time in 77 years, doubled their lead eight minutes later when Onana flapped at a cross and Warren tapped in the loose ball from close range.
Amorim sent on captain Bruno Fernandes and new signing Mbeumo after the break but his side were lucky not to be 3-0 down when the hosts had a goal by Cameron Gardner ruled out harshly for offside.
Mbeumo eventually injected some top-tier quality into United’s display with a silky low finish to set up a nervous finale for the hosts. And when Maguire, so often the scorer of vital goals for United, headed past Christy Pym in the 89th minute it seemed he had got his side out of jail.
Sesko could even have sealed it at the death after a goalmouth scramble.
Onana redeemed his earlier errors with a save from Clarke Oduor in the shoot-out but Brazilian Cunha had his abysmal spot kick saved by Christy Pym.
It seemed like the shootout could go on all night as kicks hit the net but while Grimsby’s players were ice cool, Mbeumo cracked, sending his effort against the crossbar.
“The way we started the game, without any intensity, any idea of pressure, we were completely lost, and it’s hard to explain,” Amorim said.
-Reuters
Carabao Cup – Second Round – Grimsby Town v Manchester United – Blundell Park, Grimsby, Britain – August 27, 2025 Manchester United’s Bryan Mbeumo looks dejected after he misses a penalty as Grimsby Town players celebrate after winning the shoot-out Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith.
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Tens of thousands of Newcastle United fans gathered in the city on Saturday to celebrate the club’s first domestic trophy in 70 years, with the streets turning a sea of black and white for the open-top bus parade.
Newcastle United Victory Parade – Newcastle, Britain – March 29, 2025 General view of Newcastle United fans during the victory parade REUTERS/Scott Heppel
About 150,000 people were expected to catch a glimpse of the League Cup that Newcastle lifted on March 16, after a 2-1 victory over Liverpool in the final at Wembley Stadium.
For manager Eddie Howe, Saturday’s event was an emotional moment as the city honoured him with a massive banner, unfurled outside St James’ Park.
“I can’t thank everyone enough, from Newcastle, the way they’ve embraced me and my family and I’m glad to have given them some joy,” he said atop the bus that carried the team around the city.
As the bus and crowd approached the Town Moor site, white smoke blanketed the area as the crowd sang Hey Jude, replacing ‘Jude’ with ‘Geordies’, and ABBA music was played over the speakers for a party expected to last long into the night.
-Reuters
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