Football Roundup | English top guns qualify into the EFL Cup Fourth Round; Real Madrid gets stunned by a late Real Betis strike

Football Roundup | English top guns qualify into the EFL Cup Fourth Round; Real Madrid gets stunned by a late Real Betis strike

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Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, and Chelsea - all made it to the next round of the EFL Cup as they defeated Burton Albion, West Bromwich Albion, Doncaster Rovers, and Nottingham Forest respectively. Real Madrid’s poor run in the La Liga continued as Zidane’s men lost to Real Betis.

Manchester United 4-1 Burton Albion

Marcus Rashford scored twice to inspire a dominating victory over Championship side Burton Albion as Manchester United cruised into the fourth round of the Carabao Cup. The thing that Burton manager, Nigel Clough, would have feared most coming into the huge game was conceding early and Rashford did just that.

It was inside five minutes that the mercurial youngster got his goal as a delicious cross by Michael Carrick found Jesse Lingard inside the penalty area, who placed it in Rashford’s path for a simple finish. United’s second came 12 minutes later and it needed a more ruthless finish when Daley Blind pushed the ball down the left and Rashford got at the end of it before unleashing an unstoppable shot that went inside off the post.

United came closer for the third goal numerous times, with Juan Mata even hitting the left post, before Anthony Martial danced his way round into the penalty area and placrd the ball to Lingard, whose shot took a wicked deflection before going past Burton goalie Conor Ripley.

The fourth came at the 60 minute when Martial finally got the result of his hard work with a simple finish. This is Manchester United’s fourth four-goal haul this season across all competitions with the previous three coming against West Ham United, Swansea City and Everton FC.

West Bromwich Albion 1-2 Manchester City

Despite an inspiring display by Leroy Sane, which saw Manchester City progress into the next round of the domestic cup, Tony Pulis’ men reminded Pep Guardiola of how vulnerable they can be, at times. The young German international scored twice in the both the halves as the Baggies’ adamant defence prevented the Sky Blues a free-scoring run, which they have been experiencing lately.

Manchester City opened the account in trademark Guardiola style as it was a 54-pass move that led to their first goal in the third minute of the game. Midfielder Fabian Delph swept a ball out to the right, where Raheem Sterling crossed it to Ilkay Gundogan, whose shot was saved by Ben Foster before Sane finished the rebound.  

West Brom looked disciplined from there, and midfielder Claudio Yacob was a huge threat for City throughout the game before he eventually broke the deadlock in the second-half.

However, their combative display fizzled out as Sane put the final nail in the coffin in the 77 minute with a curler from 20 yards out. This win extends Manchester City’s winning run to five matches in all competitions.

Arsenal 1-0 Doncaster Rovers

Chelsea 5-1 Nottingham Forest

Everton 3-0 Sunderland

Real Madrid 0-1 Real Betis

Santiago Bernabeu star Cristiano Ronaldo was returning in a white shirt for the first time this season as he was serving his five-match ban for shoving a referee against Barcelona last month. However, all the excitement turned to ashes as an unlikely winner in the dying minutes of the game saw Los Blancos further drifted down the table with Barcelona now having a five-point lead.

Expectedly, it was a Real Madrid domination throughout the game, but the Portuguese international saw his fancy headers and backheels going ineffective against the sea of green shirts defending in numbers.

But, as the second half passed by and the Bernabeu crowd grew restless, the visitors started to believe they could leave the arena with more than just a point. It was proved right in the 94 minute of the stoppage time when star Paraguayan striker Antonio Sanabria escaped his marker and put in a far-post header beyond the Madrid keeper.

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