EFL Cup - Round 2

[redblueeagle@palace]

Crystal Palace 1-2 Leeds United

It wasn't to be although we ran Leeds close. Leeds took the lead but we battled back to level before halftime. It looked like we might need to sub on strikers for penalties but Leeds had other ideas and stole the win and broke Palace hearts with 7 minutes to go. It had to be Zaha too!

Played Tim

[Gary@Millwall]

Real Sociedad 3 Sporting Lisbon 2

This was a thrilling end to end cup tie that Sporting Lisbon threw away despite smashing their Conference opponents.

The referee really did not get a grip on the Conference sides play acting as they looked for penalties from open play at every opportunity, really the referee should have booked the Sociedad players in the 17th minute to stamp the shenanigans out but he let it slide.

Gianluca Mancini scored a great header in the 39th minute to give Sporting Lisbon the lead as the Portuguese club went in at half time 1-0 up.

Neil Kirby instructed his Spanish caretaking side to attack from the 50th minute and six minutes later Robert Lewandowski made it 2-0 and you would have expected Sporting Lisbon to be in the hat for the Quarter Finals.

This is cup football however and Neil is a great manager who knows how to get results.

The Real Sociedad players started diving all over the place and in the 59th minute yet another dive was not punished by a card from the referee as he waved away the 2nd penalty appeal of the game.

Third time lucky for the Spanish Oscar winners as Sorloth feel over a bit of grass but the idiot referee pointed straight to the penalty spot adjudging that Jérôme Boateng had touched the Olympic Gold Medal diving winner.

Sadiq made no mistake with the spot kick to half the deficit. The Sporting Lisbon players were outraged and arguing with the referee and Real Sociedad punished the Portuguese players by equalising straight from kick off through Sadiq again.

Sporting Lisbon should have had a penalty in the 89th minute but Real Sociedad's 12th man rejected the linesman advise and into extra time the two sides went at 2-2.

Navarro sent the Spanish Conference side into dreamland in the 95th minute putting the home side 3-2 up it what was a remarkable turnaround for Neil Kirby's chargers.

Real Sociedad repelled everything Sporting Lisbon threw at them and Real Sociedad find themselves in the hat for the Quarter Final draw.

Sporting Lisbon will feel shell shocked losing a game they dominated with 62% possession 32 shots created to Real Sociedad's 25 and having 18 shots on target to Real Sociedad's 13. Sporting Lisbon will be cursing that they could not convert one of the seven corners they won.

The Sporting Lisbon faithful will be expecting their side to bounce back in the League on Thursday that is for sure.

Windebank Post Match Comments

I have a dressing room of very disappointed players at the moment, they are very unhappy to throw away a 2 goal lead and be knocked out of the competition.

I have said to them not to be down hearted these things happen in football. They played well enough to win two games but Cup football especially away from home sometimes does not get the result the performance deserves.

But all credit has to be given to Neil Kirby these geezer knows how to get the best out of less fashionable clubs and has made a career of it for as long as I have been in FFO management.

I always pitting my wits against Mr Kirby and hopefully one day he will come over to the EFL dark side.

Well done to Real Sociedad and Neil Kirby I wish them the best of luck in the EFL cup this season.