Bristol City shocks Manchester United with last-minute winner in League Cup

Henry Bushnell
·Senior soccer reporter
Korey Smith celebrates his late winner for Bristol City against Manchester United. (Getty)
Korey Smith celebrates his late winner for Bristol City against Manchester United. (Getty)

Korey Smith is a relatively unknown name in English football. But on Wednesday night, he became the toast of Bristol when he scored a 93rd-minute winner to beat Manchester United in the Carabao Cup – also known as the League Cup – quarterfinals:

Wild celebrations followed the goal:

Bristol City head coach Lee Johnson picked up and twirled around a ball-boy:

Fans stormed the field – in a good-natured manner – at the final whistle. Players hung around to join in the fun. Smith couldn’t escape the dozens who had queued up for selfies, or those who just wanted to give him bear hugs.

Bristol had taken an early-second-half lead through Joe Bryan, who was named man of the match. Zlatan Ibrahimovic equalized seven minutes later with a low, driven free kick from 25 yards out. United had looked the more likely of the two teams to win the game late on, but Bristol stunned its Premier League visitors with the late winner.

It’s just the League Cup, and far from the end of the world for United, which played two-thirds of a second-string team, and has bigger competitions to worry about. But it’s a night Bristol will cherish. The city and club are on to the semifinals of the tournament alongside Man City, Arsenal and Chelsea, which beat Bournemouth on a stoppage-time winner from Alvaro Morata.

Bristol City plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football, and currently sits third in the table after finishing 17th a year ago. It has never reached the Premier League.