The 2006 Football League Cup final also known as the 2006 Carling Cup final for sponsorship reasons, was played between Manchester United and Wigan Athletic on 26 February 2006. Manchester United won the match comfortably, by four goals to nil. Louis Saha and Cristiano Ronaldo both scored one goal, and Wayne Rooney scored twice. For the trophy presentation, the Manchester United players wore special shirts reading "For You Smudge", referring to Alan Smith, who had broken his left leg during a recent FA Cup match against Liverpool. Wigan goalkeeper Mike Pollitt picked up a hamstring injury after just 14 minutes, cutting short a dream cup final for the journeyman player, who started his career with the Red Devils.
Road to Cardiff
+ Manchester UnitedRound 3Clubs in the Premier League receive a bye to the second and clubs in European competitions received a bye to the third roundManchester United4–1BarnetRound 4Manchester United3–1West Bromwich AlbionRound 5Birmingham City1–3Manchester UnitedSemi-final (1st leg)Blackburn Rovers1–1Manchester UnitedSemi-final (2nd leg)Manchester United2–1Blackburn Rovers (Man Utd won 3–2 on aggregate)
+ WiganRound 2Wigan Athletic1–0AFC BournemouthRound 3Wigan Athletic3–0WatfordRound 4Wigan Athletic1–0Newcastle UnitedRound 5Wigan Athletic2–0Bolton WanderersSemi-final (1st leg)Wigan Athletic1–0ArsenalSemi-final (2nd leg)Arsenal2–1Wigan Athletic (2–2 on aggregate. Wigan Athletic won on away goals)
Match details
GK 19 Edwin van der SarRB 2 Gary Neville (c)CB 6 Wes Brown CB 5 Rio FerdinandLB 27 Mikaël Silvestre RM 7 Cristiano Ronaldo CM 22 John O'SheaCM 11 Ryan GiggsLM 13 Park Ji-sungSS 8 Wayne RooneyCF 9 Louis SahaSubstitutes:GK 1 Tim HowardDF 3 Patrice Evra DF 15 Nemanja Vidić MF 23 Kieran Richardson FW 10 Ruud van NistelrooyManager: Sir Alex Ferguson GK 12 Mike Pollitt RB 2 Pascal ChimbondaCB 16 Arjan de Zeeuw (c) CB 6 Stéphane Henchoz LB 26 Leighton BainesRM 21 Jimmy BullardCM 11 Graham Kavanagh CM 19 Paul ScharnerLM 20 Gary TealeCF 7 Henri CamaraCF 30 Jason RobertsSubstitutes:GK 1 John Filan DF 4 Matt JacksonMF 8 Andreas JohanssonMF 23 Reto Ziegler FW 10 Lee McCulloch Manager: Paul Jewell Match officials Assistant referees: John Holbrook (Worcestershire) Paul Norman (Dorset) Fourth official: Andy Hall (West Midlands)
Man of the match Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)Match rules 90 minutes 30 minutes of extra time if necessary Penalty shoot-out if scores still level Five named substitutes Maximum of three substitutions
Statistics Statistic United WiganTotal shots 14 16Shots on target 9 7Ball possession 46% 54%Corner kicks 1 5Fouls committed 11 13Offsides 3 2Yellow cards 1 1Red cards 0 0
References
External links Match facts at soccerbase.com