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Frank Lampard has his first famous victory as a football manager, knocking out Manchester United from the League Cup. Super Frank has had many famous victories at Old Trafford as a player with Chelsea, but now he’s taken his second division Derby County side to the Theatre of Dreams and engineering a dream victory over the heavily favored home side. It may have taken a penalty shootout to complete the job, but United needed a last minute equalizer from Marouane Fellaini to even get to that point.
Which post match Jose will we get? A) blame the media Jose B) praise the oppo Jose (always an option when they aren't a direct rival) C) no show Jose D) it was the Pog what done it Jose E) sarcastically praise the official Jose
— Matt Davies-Adams (@MJDAFC) September 25, 2018
Neither manager took it easy with their starting lineups. Mourinho may have left David De Gea and Paul Pogba on the bench, but Lukaku, Lingard, and Matic all started, while the likes of Martial and Mata are not exactly chopped liver either. Lampard matched that as much as he could, at least in intent. Mason Mount (impressive as usual) and Fikayo Tomori (shackled Lukaku all night) got the call, while veteran mainstays like David Nugent, Richard Keogh, and goalkeeper Scott Carson weren’t rested either. In fact, Lampard saw this trip to Old Trafford as a way to reward the players who played well over the weekend.
“I’m shell shocked. What a performance. To go down early at Old Trafford and play as well as they did was superb. We had the personality to take penalties and play the way we did. I am a proud manager.
”It was the easiest selection I have had, the players were superb against Brentford and they deserved the chance to play at Old Trafford. I wanted to bring a team who could really compete. I am so proud of them.
”I am trying to build a group to be successful and nights like this are incredible. To go against world-class players and play that way, it’s right up there. Harry Wilson does do that in training, he proved me wrong as I thought it was too far out. Both he and Mason Mount are going to go a long way.”
-Frank Lampard; source: Sky via BBC
Juan Mata staked United to a third-minute lead, but they would be unable to add to that for the next 92 minutes. Meanwhile, Derby, with nothing to lose and an inspirational manager on the bench, not only got an equalizer on the hour-mark from young Harry Wilson, but grabbed what looked like a winner through Jack Marriott five minutes from time. Team Fellaini, down to 10 men after Romero’s silly red card for handling outside the box, had other ideas and pulled the home side level to force the shootout (no extra time in the early rounds of the League Cup). But a perfect 8-for-8 from the spot for the visitors, started by Mason Mount as the first to go, was one better than United’s 7-for-8 and the Championship hopefuls advanced.
What a win!