SHOOT’s EFL Cup Awards (Fourth Round): Player, Team and Goal of the Round

The fourth round of the English Football League Cup concluded last night; as Southampton squirmed past Sunderland, West Ham United narrowly saw off Chelsea and Manchester United won the bragging rights with a 1-0 win over arch-rivals Manchester City on Wednesday night.

On Tuesday night; Arsenal comfortably saw off Championship contenders Reading 2-0 at the Emirates, Hull City fended off Bristol City 2-1, Leeds United defeated Norwich City on penalties, Liverpool beat Tottenham 2-1 at Anfield and Championship leaders Newcastle United thrashed Preston North End 6-0 to book their place in the next round.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain netted both of Arsenal’s efforts against Reading – Photo: Marc Atkins / Offside.

The draw for the EFL Cup quarter-finals was conducted yesterday, too; as Manchester United will host West Ham at Old Trafford, Liverpool entertain Leeds, Hull City welcome Newcastle to the KCOM Stadium and Southampton travel to Arsenal on either November 29 or 30.

But, who was the competition’s Player, Team and Goal of the Fourth Round?

Here are SHOOT‘s winners…

Player of the Round: Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool)

Photo: Simon Stacpoole / Offside.

Yet again, it’s a Liverpool player winning our Player of the Round award, as Daniel Sturridge follows Phillipe Coutinho’s lead from the last round.

In a youthful looking Liverpool side, that made 11 changes from the weekend, Sturridge led not just the line, but the way, as Jurgen Klopp’s Reds entered the draw for the quarter-finals.

He opened the scoring after nine minutes, when Marko Grujic’s deflected effort fell into the path of the instinctive England striker, who simply lifted it over Michel Vorm and into the net. He almost got his second just moments later, receiving the ball on the right wing after a good ball from 17-year-old debutant Trent Alexander-Arnold, before Sturridge cut inside onto his dangerous left foot, and from the edge of the box forced the Dutchman Vorm into a fine flying save.

Probably Sturridge’s biggest criticism, his poor weak-foot, came to show after Divock Origi’s fantastic pace, power and skill found his strike-partner Sturridge, who hit a tame effort on his right straight into Vorm’s arms.

Sturridge could have doubled his tally again on 54 minutes, but his right foot again let him down as he failed to even make contact this time after more good work from Origi.

Finally, and inevitably, his second did come. His fourth goal of the season, which have all come in the EFL Cup, arrived on 64 minutes when he was played through by Georginio Wijnaldum and made his one-on-one look simple by sliding it underneath Vorm, who couldn’t come to Spurs’ rescue on this occasion.

Liverpool were made to cling on in the end after Vincent Jansen halved the deficit from the spot, but the home side ran out winners thanks to super-Sturridge’s brace, who almost bagged a hat-trick in the end, but his inventive outside of the foot effort deflected onto the bar, and again he was thwarted by the ‘keeper, cutting inside onto his left his low effort was well-saved again.

All good Liverpool did went through Sturridge, who was a constant threat all night and definitely should have had plenty more than just the two.

Team of the Round: Leeds United

Goalscorer, Antonsson – Photo: Marc Atkins / Offside.

Garry Monk kept his side Marching on Together and into the quarter-finals for the first time since 2012/13 as the Whites kept their impressive recent run up by beating promotion hopefuls and Championship high-flyers Norwich City at Elland Road.

Leeds fell behind twice to goals from summer arrivals Alex Pritchard and Nelson Oliveira, but twice clawed it back, before winning on penalties. Marcus Antonsson notched his third goal for his new new club since arriving from Swedish outfit Kalmar FF in the summer from close-range after good work from Souleymane Doukara on the verge of half-time, to level it up after Pritchard had opened the scoring for the Canaries after 14 minutes.

A goalless second-half meant it finished 1-1 at full-time, causing the game to go to extra-time, which Leeds would have to play with 10-men as Lewie Coyle had gone off injured late on in normal time, and boss Monk had already used all three substitutions.

So when Leeds fell behind on 99 minutes to Oliveira’s third goal in as many appearances against Leeds, you’d have been forgiven for thinking that it was game over.

But in true Yorkshire style, Monk’s men showed admirable togetherness, fight and spirit to once again get back on terms, a superb ball from Matt Grimes set Hadi Sacko on his way, he squared to Chris Wood who had a tap in to send the game to a penalty shootout.

This was Leeds’ second shootout of the competition after they also needed them to beat Fleetwood Town in the first round.

Goalkeeper Marco Silvestri proved the saviour as the Italian stopped penalties from Pritchard, Steven Naismith and Robbie Brady, so despite misses from Matt Grimes and Kalvin Phillips, the opportunity to win it with the 10th spot-kick fell to 18-year-old starlet Ronaldo Vieira.

But the youngster soon swept off any pressure and kept his cool in front of 22,222 inside Elland Road, sending John Ruddy the wrong way, and Leeds into the quarter-finals.

Goal of the Round: Sofiane Boufal (Southampton)

Injury to the Moroccan meant Southampton had had to wait two months to see their club-record signing make an appearance, but the little winger made it well worth waiting for and also gave Saints fans a lot to be excited about in the future as he hit the only goal in their 1-0 home win over Sunderland.

Boufal produced a moment of magic to score what proved to be the winner over David Moyes’ Black Cats, plucking Jose Fonte’s high, hanging ball out of the sky, before skipping inside Billy Jones onto his right-foot, and unleashing a fabulous curling effort that clipped the underside of the bar before landing gracefully into the side netting.

A goal and debut to remember for Boufal, who I’m sure Saints fans can’t wait to see again!