West Ham have shocked holders Manchester City, knocking them out of the Carabao Cup in the forth round at the London Stadium and cementing their place in the quarter finals.
A stalemate after 90 minutes meant the match would be decided via a penalty shootout, substitute Said Benrahma netted the final spot kick after Phil Foden’s miss gave him a chance to win the tie for the Hammers.
Firm Favourites
Before the game, City were the odds on favourites to win the Carabao Cup for a fifth year in a row. Going into the fixture, City hadn’t lost in the competition since 2016.
The last time the two sides faced each other in this competition was in 2014 when West Ham were beat 0-3 by the Cityzens at Upton Park.
West Ham manager David Moyes made eight changes to his team that beat rivals Tottenham 1-0 at the London Stadium in the Premier League on Sunday. City boss Pep Guardiola made nine changes to his City team that thrashed Brighton 4-1 away from home in the Premier League.
The visitors started the game the better of the two sides with a good passage of play culminating in Cole Palmer playing through Ilkay Gundogan into the box, however West Ham right-back Ben Johnson put in a perfectly-timed tackle to stop the midfielder getting his shot away.
Palmer was again involved in the action, creating space for himself in the box after a clever run, and getting on the end of a pullback from Riyad Mahrez, his low strike well saved by Hammers keeper Alphonse Areola.
Under The Cosh
West Ham, despite looking dangerous on the break and having decent spells of possession, only mustered one shot on target in the first half, when Tomas Soucek shifted the ball to Mark Noble who tested City keeper Zack Steffen with a powerful strike from 25 yards.
This resulted in a fast counter-attack from the away side with Sterling running at the West Ham defence and playing in Kevin De Bruyne, whose shot was well blocked by Craig Dawson.
The best chance for City came just before the end of the first half as they were awarded a free kick after Manuel Lanzini brought down Ilkay Gundogan. Mahrez swung in an excellent cross from the free kick and the ball was headed towards goal by Nathan Ake but his effort flew just wide of the target.
The second half was more action packed than the first, with both sides giving everything to break the deadlock.
The Hammers started the second half brightly, Masuaku found himself in space in the box, however the full back could not keep his shot down, blazing it over the crossbar.
It was then Man City who looked like they would take the lead, Cole Palmer did well to hold off Soucek in the box playing the ball in to Gundogan, whose effort went just wide of the target.
Soucek then had a great chance to put West Ham in front with a curling effort from the edge of the box which was just wide of the top right corner.
Hammers Stay Resolute
The away side dominated the last half an hour of proceedings and created some good chances. Shots on target from Raheem Sterling, Kevin De Bruyne and Zinchenko were all kept out by Areola in the West Ham net who had an excellent game. He also made an incredible stop with ten minutes to go.
A cross from De Bruyne found John Stones, who flicked a header towards goal, but Areola managed to claw the ball away despite having little time to react. This series of saves lead to him being named man of the match and earned him his forth clean sheet in as many games. After 90 minutes the match ended 0-0 meaning it would have to be decided by a penalty shootout.
Mark Noble took the first penalty of the shootout and avenged his dramatic late penalty miss against Manchester United earlier this season, smashing the ball down the middle of the goal. Phil Foden then stepped up to take his penalty, but the England international fired his spot kick wide of the post, much to the delight of the Hammers faithful.
Jarrod Bowen, Craig Dawson and Aaron Cresswell converted their penalties for West Ham as did Joao Cancelo, Gabriel Jesus and Jack Grealish for Man City, Foden’s earlier miss however gave Said Benrahma the chance to win the shootout for the Hammers. City keeper Zack Steffen did get a hand to the ball but couldn’t stop it from going into the bottom left corner as Benrahma secured his team’s place in the Carabao Cup quarter finals.
The draw for Quarter Final will take place this Saturday at 10:30am live on Soccer AM. David Moyes will be hoping his side can go all the way in the competition and secure a first Carabao Cup win in the club’s history. Moyes’ attention will now turn to his sides next fixture as West Ham face a difficult trip to Villa Park to take on Aston Villa in a 3 o’clock kick off on Saturday.
