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Manchester United boss has termed Middlesbrough’s win over his team ‘lucky’, BBC reports.
The championship side pipped United after a penalty shoot-out at Old Trafford. Both the teams were locked on 0-0 after normal time and extra time, but Boro stopper Mejias showed immense composure in the penalty shoot-out, as he denied Rooney and Ashley Young to fetch his team a place in the quarter-finals of the tournament.
Michael Carrick was the third player from United who failed to convert his spot-kick, as he blazed the ball over the bar. Andreas Pereira, the 19-year-old, was the only player to convert his penalty effort for United.
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LVG was quite evidently not happy with the result, he said in the post-match conference, “It is more like the casino, red or black, we trained yesterday on penalties, but it is like that. I cannot take them."
The Red Devils were the ones who came closest to scoring, as Jesse Lingard’s thunderous effort ricocheted off the bar. Martial and Fellaini also came very close to put United ahead in the tie, but some gritty defending from Daniel Ayala and some controversial decisions from the referee kept the Reds at bay.
Middlesbrough themselves got quite a few chances, but a couple of fine saves from the Argentine goalkeeper Romero denied them a normal time win.
This was the fourth consecutive penalty shootout which United have lost, but LVG did not hesitate to call this a ‘lucky’ win for Boro.
"They were lucky but, of course, you can force the luck. We have created a lot of chances, especially in the second half and in extra time. We had chances from one metre, two metres in front of the goal. We have to finish those.
"In football it is always the goals that are counting and not the chances."
We were fitter than United: Middlesborough manager
On the contrary, Middlesbrough boss Aitor Karanka was obviously very happy with his team’s performance at the Theater of Dreams. He said, "I told my players after the game that we were better than them - we were more confident on the pitch, we were fitter than them.
"I have to say how proud I am of my players. Penalties sometimes you lose - last season we lost against Liverpool after 30 penalties - and sometimes you can win like today.
"The main thing is the performance, and the performance today against Manchester United, a big team, it was amazing."
The championship side has been drawn against Everton in the next round of the Capital One Cup.
