EFL Cup – Owls Ousted at Cambridge

A Youthful Wednesday side crashed out of the EFL Cup thanks to Cambridge United`s Luke Berry who netted an extra-time winner. That was enough to see the League Two side stun the Championship promotion hopefuls.

Portuguese international striker Lucas Joao put the Owls ahead seven minutes into the second half, with a tidy finish. But in the last-minute of normal time a stunning strike from Piero Mingoia levelled to send the game into extra-time.

And when the tie looked to be heading for penalties, former Barnsley midfielder Berry popped up to fire home the winner with only two minutes remaining.

Carlos Carvalhal assured fans that they would see a much changed Owls Starting XI at the Abbey Stadium and they did with Carlos making 10 changes to the side that beat Aston Villa just two days earlier. The first half was controlled by the away side without creating many goal scoring chances.

Indeed, the best chance feel to U`s Tom Dallison who saw an early effort ruled out for offside.

The Owls debutant winger Will Buckley almost put Wednesday ahead when he stepped in off the flank and rattled a shot off the inside of David Gregory`s post. But that was about the only action of note in the first half.

The feeling was very much of a pre-season friendly, but the Owls did get themselves in front in the 52nd minute, when Lucas Joao cut in from the right and slotted the ball under the body of Gregory. Nuhiu then, had a fantastic chance to extend the Owls lead but hit the bar from what seemed like two-yards out when it looked easier to score.

The Owls were made to pay for that miss in injury time.
A superb stoppage-time strike from U`s wide-man Mingoia with his weaker left foot that flew past Wildsmith via the far post to ensure the tie went to extra-time.

Cambridge began to dominate against a youthful and tired looking Wednesday team during the extra period and their pressure paid off two minutes from the end when Berry latched onto Josh Coulson`s ball into the box, turned his marker and fired across Wildsmith and into the net.