Carling Cup Final: United keep their cool to win on penalties

Carling Cup / Maxliu / 01 March 2009 / Leave a Comment

Quintuple still on as United show grace under pressure to win second tournament of the season after close fought final with Tottenham.

The 2008/09 Carling Cup Final was settled by only the second penalty shootout in the competition's history today as Manchester United beat Tottenham Hotspur 4-1 on penalties.

United, who were backed at a high of [15.0] to win the tournament, showed by far the greater composure in the shootout with Ryan Giggs, Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo all burying their efforts.

For Spurs, there werer tears from Jamie O'Hara who saw his kick saved by Ben Foster. Vederan Corluka managed to score Spurs' second penalty but when David Bentley rolled his wide, it was left to United midfielder Anderson to slot his spot-kick into the bottom left-hand corner of Heurelho Gomez's goal to bring his side their second trophy of the season.

United started the game explosively, peppering Gomez with shots, but Tottenham gradually got a foothold with Aaron Lennon giving Patrice Evra a torrid time on the right flank and creating chances which Roman Pavlyuchenko and Darren Bent were unable to convert. Likewise, the game seemed to by-pass United's young striker Danny Wellbeck and he was subsituted in the second half.

With neither side able to make the breakthrough, the two sides cancelled each other out for long periods of the game. Cristiano Ronaldo could have won it for United in the last minute of normal time when he hammered a shot against the Spurs post. The ball rebounded to Nani who sidefooted wide.

The closest either team came to winning it in extra time was when Patrice Evra fired an excellent effort inches over Gomez's cross-bar from 20 yards out.

In the Match Odds market, the draw, after 90 minutes, was matched at 4.2 and the 0-0 was matched at [13.0] in the correct score market.