David Moyes Upset with his Troops

• Guardian, Thursday, January 23, 2014 2:37 PM

David Moyes criticized his Manchester United players for their performance and missing of four of five penalties in a "terrible" 2-1 shootout defeat that saw Sunderland to progress to the Capital One Cup final.

United trailed 2-1 from the first leg but were heading to Wembley on the away goals rule as the end of overtime approached due to Jonny Evans's first-half finish. But after David de Gea's blunder allowed Phil Bardsley's 119th-minute shot to slip in, Javier Hernandez grabbed a lifeline with a strike seconds later to take the tie into the shootout. But only Darren Fletcher scored for United from the spot.

"We hadn't played well enough tonight to merit going through, but we were getting through, we had defended well enough to see the game out," Moyes said. "It changed and credit to the lads for getting the goal [from Hernandez] to get us back in the game, but we didn't play well enough and Sunderland came and deservedly got themselves in the final.

"The bigger disappointment was how we played. Of course, you would expect a better standard because, don't forget, there are a lot of internationals out there. We wanted to score a second goal and had quite a few opportunities to score it. ... But it went to penalties and our penalties were terrible."

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