Hull City enter into their 2nd leg of their EFL semi-final on Thursday night looking to overturn the 2-0 deficit they face from their first leg at Old Trafford two weeks ago when the Tigers held the Red-Devils to a 1-0 scoreline after the Special Juan had put United ahead until late in the game after an early goal before Marouane Fellaini scored with a fine header to give United a much more comfortable 2-0 lead to take to the KC Stadium.
Hull have failed to bulge the twine vs United on any of their last 4 matches with their last scorer being Matty Fryatt who scored against United back in in a Premier League clash in back in May of the last 2013-2014 season. United are unbeaten in their last 13 matches vs Hull City winning an impressive 12 games while only losing just the one match against the Tigers.
There has only been one time in the last 26 of the last 27 games a club losing the first-leg of a semi-final by 2 or more goals have ended up being knocked out by their opponenents coming back from a 2 goal deficit to win and advance to the Final. This happened all the way back in the in 1993/94 season when the Villans who had lost 3-1 in the 1st leg turned things around and tied the semi-final overall 3-3 after unbelievably winning the second leg 3-1 before to going on to book their place in the final courtesy of a 5-4 triumph on penalties.
United have a pretty good damn record in this competition and clealry Jose Mourinho likes this cup competition as he has progressed to the final on each of the three previous occasions they have won the first leg of a League Cup semi-final, doing so in all 3 semi-final appearances back vs Arsenal in 1982/83, against Leeds United in the 1990/91 season and again vs Sheffield Wednesday in the 1993/94 season.
Interestingly and somewhat against the form-book, The Tigers are unbeaten in their last six home League Cup matches while winning 3 games and drawing 3 games, scoring exactly once in each match. Conversely, the Red-Devils have lost 4 of their last 5 away League Cup matches against Premier League opposition while only claiming 1 win, most recently losing 2-1 to Sunderland in January 2014.
United have never lost a match at the KCOM Stadium, winning four and drawing one in five previous Premier League clashes there. Their last away defeat to Hull came in November 1974 at Boothferry Park in a Second Division match under the management of Tommy Docherty so that loss should have not have too much bearing on the match on Thursday night.
Jose Mourinho will surely will be selecting a very strong line-up to face Hull City on Thursday and likely will use previous game winner Anthony Martial who scored a fine brace to secure their advancement past West Ham in the 1/4 final with 2 sweet finishes which put the result way beyond doubt and Jose places a great deal of emphasis on this competition as a win will go a long way to springbaording their season to possible multiple trophy wins and the EFL Cup is a great way to start and few injuries hampering them should not stop them from getting to the final against the improving Hull City side under Marco Silva who has instantly got the Tigers playing a much more balanced game where they are hard to beat but they are also a threat going forward neither of which was very much evidence of under Mike Phelan.
While Hull are definitely on the up and have a decent chance of staying in the Premier league it is still a big ask and we expect United to come through the 2nd leg of the EFL Cup semi-final tie winning 3-2 and winning the 2 legged tie by an overall 5-2 scoreline at the KC Stadium as Jose looks to equal SAF’s 4 EFL Cup wins. We whall see, but Jose is sure to utilise a strong line-up with a strong bench to ensure he can get the job done. We wish the Red-Devils the very best of luck as they look to finish the job to secure their final berth to play Southampton who beat Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool 1-0 at Anfield tonight and 2-0 on aggregate overall. You could argue United will have the easier task vs Southampton but looking at the way Claude Puel has the Saints playing it will be no easy assignment given the disciplined and talented young playing squad that has been assembled at St Mary’s.
United need to focus on getting past Marco Silva’s improving Hull City side tomorrow night at the KC Stadium before even thinking about the Saints or they could become a cropper.