West Ham knocked out Manchester United from the Carabao Cup Wednesday following a 1-0 win at Old Trafford. The Hammers scored early in the first half thanks to Manuel Lanzini, and never looked back.
Cristiano Ronaldo was not included in the 18-man lineup for Wednesday, with Jesse Lingard, Anthony Martial and Jadon Sancho selected as the attacking three.
“Cristiano Ronaldo has come in and made a difference already, he wants to play as much as possible but I don’t think it is possible,” Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said on Wednesday. “If you are going to be successful at the end, you need the whole squad and minutes to be shared out. A risk making so many changes but we have played some games behind closed doors and hopefully we find the rhythm.”
West Ham clearly bounced back from their Sunday Premier League loss vs Manchester United as Lanzini struck a goal within the first 10 minutes.
“We made a poor start,” Solskjaer summarized.
Despite the loss, United did see a stellar performance from Juan Mata who created three chances — the most of any other player — vs West Ham. He nearly scored as well.
United used a 4-2-3-1 formation, with West Ham matching the same setup.
“We tried our best but unfortunately it wasn’t enough tonight,” United’s Diogo Dalot said via social media. “Thank you to the fans for your massive support as always.”
Although it wasn’t three points on the Premier League table, a win vs United is always a positive sign for someone like David Moyes. Moyes, a former United manager, was excited to see his side strike early on Wednesday.
Despite a second-string lineup overall, United still had Sancho, Martial, Lindelöf, Matic and Eric Bailly. There were over 720,000 fans in the stadium, and a loss at this stage of the tournament is anything but expected.
United dominated possession 60-40, and had twice as many shots on target as did West Ham. The match only saw one yellow card, to Mark Noble.
For the first time since 2007, West Ham win at Old Trafford. For the first time since being let go from the club, Moyes won against United.
United are back in action later this upcoming weekend vs Aston Villa on Saturday, while West Ham hit the road for a matchup vs Leeds United.
West Ham will play Manchester City next in round four of the Carabao Cup.
