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Man Utd booed off after bottling 2-0 lead and lose 3-2 to Brighton in Carabao Cup

Man Utd were booed off after bottling a 2-0 lead and lose 3-2 to Brighton in the Third Round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.

Shea Lacey and Mason Mount had United 2-0 up after just 10 minutes, but the hosts suffered a humiliating collapse, with Brighton’s Charalampos Kostoulas getting one back on the verge of half time.

Then the comeback was complete thanks to goals from Pascal Gross (65′) and Maxime De Cuyper (70′), the Seagulls held on to book their place in the Fourth Round draw.

Manchester United exit the Carabao Cup at the Third Round for a second year in a row, the result also the first time in 50 years that United have been 2-0 up at Old Trafford and lost the game. They had gone on to win 143 out of the 145 games they previous had this advantage before tonight.

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Man Utd head coach Michael Carrick said to Sky Sports:

“We can’t accept that as a group. I take responsibility for it. The performance towards the end of the second half, that’s on me.

“We’ll all be better. We have to be better. We have a big game on Sunday that we have to prepare for. We’re out of this competition and we have to go back to winning football matches.”

What do you need to do to get better? “We’ll get better on a number of things.”

Is he feeling the boos from the fans? “Yeah of course, that’s pretty obvious! I totally understand the feelings of the supporters.

“We have to accept it. I totally accept it. It’s on me ultimately: as a team what we look like, how we play and what results you get. I take that. I’ll take the praise, I’ll take the criticism and the upset.

“I totally understand it for the way the game went. We have got to win games.”

In his press conference, Carrick said, as per manutd.com: “I think the way we started the game, 20 or 25 minutes into the game, we were in such a good position, playing well and doing all the things we wanted to do. It feels like a long time ago now. The feeling at the start of the game and the feeling at the end couldn’t have been further apart. We have to accept that the game can’t go in that direction from where we were.”

Journalist: “Do you see enough resilience in this changing room to come back on Sunday? That has been an up-and-down season performance-wise and results-wise, but do you see enough resilience in that changing room?”

Carrick: “Yeah. I mean, a couple of smaller things ended up accumulating into something bigger. I understand why you’re asking the question. If you go from the Everton last-minute goal to the City goal, it creates a bit of a feeling. Then there’s the game today. We fully accept it. I’ve told them to take responsibility. We can’t put ourselves in that position after being ahead in the game and have it finish like it did. A couple of things have gone against us, and all of a sudden it becomes a greater thing from nowhere, really. We’ve got to react to it. We’ve got another game on Sunday, and that’s the crucial thing now. It’s happened quickly tonight, and over a period of two or three weeks there has been a lot of frustration and disappointment around. We need to flip that and start winning games again.”

Journalist: “Hi, Michael. I know you’re obviously taking responsibility, but do you feel a bit sold short with this squad?”

Carrick: “No. The team’s on me. When we win, people say I’m doing a good job. If we don’t win or don’t get results, then a lot of it is on me. I accept that. I’m not hiding away from any of that. That is what it is.”

 

Journalist: “Did you gauge a reaction from the players that gives you confidence they can turn it around and you can turn it around as well?”

Carrick: “Yeah, of course we can turn it around. We’ve got some really good players. It feels bad at the moment because we haven’t had a great week, or two or three weeks, but that doesn’t mean you can’t win another game of football quickly. The players have shown before what they’re capable of doing, and we have as a group. It doesn’t count for much; it’s always about what happens next. That’s the ultimate challenge. It always has been here and always will be. It’s about dealing with the moments, the ups and the downs. We’ve certainly got to deal with this moment in a good way.”

Journalist:  “Hi, Michael. You’ve been a regular here in recent years when it has felt like this club gets into a negative spiral, and it’s hard for managers to stop it. How do you go about doing that now? Do you feel under pressure already because of that, or is it too soon for that?”

Carrick: “No pressure anyway. Either way, that doesn’t bother me one bit. I understand what goes on outside and how the world works, but it genuinely doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is winning games, having a good feeling around the place and knowing we’re moving in a good direction. If we’re on a good run, the biggest thing I’m thinking about is keeping it going and keeping everything on an even level. If we’re not on a good run, then we’ve got to get back to being on a good run. That’s as simple as it gets. We’ve got to win football matches, and I fully believe we will. Obviously, we’ve got to do it pretty quickly, and Sunday is a starting point.”

Check out his whole post match press conference below…

Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler to Sky Sports:

“We started the game really well. We conceded two easy goals and we stuck to the plan. That was the positive thing.

“When you’re 2-0 goal you can go in one direction and say the game is done and don’t stick to the plan anymore. Or you have to believe in yourself and the match plan and finish doing it. The longer the game went, the better we were. And we won a deserved win.

“I didn’t think we started that bad. We conceded goals and goals change momentum but we had the right structure and good patterns. We weren’t clean. The bad thing is we were quite nervous, making technical mistakes and then the players grew into the game.

“In the end, we completely controlled the game. We had plenty of chances to score another goal. But I had a feeling in the beginning that some players were nervous.”

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