Carling Cup: United book a place in Wembley

Updated: 09 May, 2009 • 0 • min read

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Manchester United booked their place in the Carling Cup final by beating Derby 4-2 at Old Trafford.

The Championship side took a 1-0 lead from the first leg into Tuesday night's semi-final, but were 3-0 down after just 34 minutes at the Theatre of Dreams.

The hosts went ahead on 16 minutes when Nani evaded Andy Todd before thumping an unstoppable 25-yard screamer past former United keeper Roy Carroll.

It was 2-0 six minutes later as Carlos Tévez and Danny Welbeck combined to set up John O'Shea, who had far too much time to slide home into the bottom corner.

Tévez added a third in the 34th minute when he was perfectly placed to head home his ninth goal of the season following a precise cross from Rafael da Silva.

United suffered an injury blow as Jonny Evans turned his ankle while challenging substitute Giles Barnes, but with all their substitutes already on the field the centre-back was forced to soldier on.

The visitors pulled one back on 80 minutes as Barnes scored from the spot after Paul Green had been fouled by Evans.

United responded as Tévez then won a penalty six minutes later, with substitute Cristiano Ronaldo keeping his cool to convert the penalty to make it 4-1 on the night.

But Derby came again with Barnes curling a superb 25-yard free-kick in stoppage time, but they could not snatch a dramatic third which would have seen them force extra time.

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