City are hit by Hammer blow
Shoot-out hero Said sinks holders
THERE WILL be a new name on the Carabao Cup for the first time since 2018 thanks to West Ham. And the way their season is going, the Hammers might be starting to fancy their chances of replacing Manchester City as winners of this season’s first piece of silverware.
A shootout victory sealed by Said Benrahma’s winning penalty booked West Ham a place in the last eight.
And Phil Foden’s earlier miss in the shootout, the only one of the night and which paved the way for Benrahma’s big moment, was in keeping with a City performance that fell below their usual standards.
Pep Guardiola’s side eventually paid the price and their recent domination of this competition is finally over after four successive triumphs and five years without losing in the EFL Cup.
Unsurprisingly, there were wholesale changes from both managers. In City’s case their nine highlighted an almost unfair strength in depth.
Guardiola’s side still contained 10 full internationals and one of England’s brightest young prospects in Cole Palmer, who has netted in this competition, the Champions League and twice for his country at Under-21 level this season.
West Ham’s eight changes were a welcome sign of the times for the east Londoners. They now have bigger fish to fry in the Premier League and Europa League. This was a night for the likes of Declan Rice and Michail Antonio to get a rare and well-earned rest.
City settled almost instantly, quickly finding their passing rhythm and pinning West Ham back.
Palmer, one of the next big things out of City’s academy after Foden, was in a false nine role the England star filled so effectively at Brighton on Saturday and his early, elusive movement was making him hard to pick up.
Only a timely intervention from Issa Diop snuffed out Ilkay Gundogan as he also ghosted into the box and prepared to shoot.
With West Ham posing little threat, goalkeeper Zack Steffen briefly made things interesting by taking his time to deal with a back-pass, tempting Manuel Lanzini who slid in a split second after the American whipped the ball away just in time.
It was a little glimmer of hope,
Mark Noble forcing Steffen into an awkward save from long range soon after. They were beginning to sense something.
But along came another warning from City and Palmer, who marched into the box but had his shot kicked away by goalkeeper Alphonse Areola.
It was the final time they came close in the half, thanks to some diligent West Ham defending and wayward finishing.
Nathan Ake headed their best opportunity in the closing stages wide from a Riyad Mahrez free-kick.
The Hammers were first to threaten after the break when Arthur Masuaku fired over after being played in by Noble.
The home fans would have preferred if he had tried his luck moments earlier when their side worked the ball out City-style from back to front to present Masuaku with a sight of goal, but he took too long to sort his feet out.
And after Gundogan was equally wasteful at the other end, another chance fell Masuaku’s way, Steffen palming his shot into the air before Andriy Yarmolenko’s follow up was blocked by his Ukraine teammate Oleksandr Zinchenko.
That sparked City into life. Both Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne tested Areola before he acrobatically pushed away John Stones’ header.
Both managers turned to their benches to make attacking changes but the chances — mainly for City, though Soucek blew a great one for West Ham — continued to come and go.
And it was not until penalties that the two teams could be separated.
Noble made amends for his recent penalty miss against Manchester United to get West Ham off on the right foot before Foden whipped his effort wide to hand the home side the initiative.
And they never let it go, converting all five of their efforts to cap a memorable night for David Moyes’ side.
City defender Kyle Walker was humble after defeat, tweeting: ‘An incredible run had to come to an end at some point. Well done @WestHam.’