Swansea City have qualified for the the semifinals of the Capital One Cup after defeating Middlesbrough by a tiny margin of 1-0. The goal coming thanks to Seb Hines’s own goal just nine minutes from time.
The game unfortunately lacked vigour as neither of the teams attacked as much as expected. None of the players looked like scoring and for long periods of the game the ball remained in the middle of the pitch as the pace of the game was slow.
Boro went close to taking the lead in the 21st minute as Swans keeper Gerhard Tremmel was made to make a low diving save to his right. Minutes after, he made another intelligent save to keep another shot out of the goal. Boro manager Tony Mowbray was the happier of the two going into half time.
Tactical changes after half time saw both the teams make changes. Shechter and Routledge subbed off for Moore and Sung-Yueng for the Swans and Bikey-Amougou, Haroun and Leadbitter make way for Halliday, Miller and Smallwood for Middlesbrough.
The game suddenly opened up in the second half as the referee waved away a claim from the Swansea players for a penalty after a challenge on Ki inside the box.
Towards the end of the half Swansea applied enough pressure on the Boro defence. De Guzman’s free kick came agonizingly close forcing the keeper to palm the ball onto the crossbar. Eventually unable to withstand the pressure, Seb Hines ended up scoring in his own net sending Swansea through to the Semifinals.
The game was a clean one with no dangerous fouls as such and saw just two yellow cards shown to Middlesbro’ players.
Bradford, Aston Villa and Swansea have already qualified for the Semis with Chelsea still to play Leeds united in next weeks fourth qualifier.