A massive crowd present at the London Wembley Stadium witnessed Manchester United retain the England’s League Cup as they defeated Aston Villa 2-1. The header by Rooney was his 28th goal of the season and also proved to be decisive in the end. Rooney was relieved to have scored the winning goal although he admitted that he had some difficulty with his sore knee.

Aston villa took an early lead in the match with the help of James Milner’s goal which came in the fifth minute. Michael Owen though leveled the score in the 12th minute but he had to leave the field in the 42nd minute due to his hamstring injury.

Manchester United had begun their encounter without Rooney and Michael Owen had taken the responsibility of the club’s attack with Berbatov. The sudden departure of Owen meant that Rooney had to step in to the field and this proved a blessing in disguise for Manchester United. Rooney also created another chance that was narrowly missed in the dying moments of the match. The wonderful display of the English Premier League champions of last season means that they retain the Carling Cup.

Meanwhile, Vahid Halilhodzic, the manager of the Ivory Coast was fired due to the poor performance of his team in African Cup of Nations that was held in January. Ivory Coast had a poor show in the tournament and did not even reach the semi-finals. The President of the Ivorian Football Federation, Jacques Anouma declared that there would be an announcement made very soon about the new manager of the team.