Capital One Cup exit leaves sour taste for Bilic as West Ham fall in extra-time

West Ham boss Slaven Bilic rued a missed opportunity to initiate a sustained challenge in a domestic cup competition after failing to withstand the Leicester tide during  the Capital One Cup third round last night.

 

Hammers goalkeeper Adrian made a string of crucial saves but was powerless to deny midfielder Andy King in extra-time after Leicester forward Joe Dodoo and West Ham striker Mauro Zarate had traded blows in the first half of normal time.

 

Defeat ended West Ham’s impressive run of three successive victories on the road at Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City, while Leicester maintained their unbeaten start to the campaign across all competitions.

 

“I feel gutted because we lost after 120 minutes, with three minutes to go of a proper English cup game,” said Bilic.

 

 “We went behind then we came back into it. We played ok but we weren’t really good.

 

“It was an intense but very open game. We weren’t as compact as I wanted us to be but the lads did everything to go through.

 

“We put a strong team out and we wanted to go through, which is why we’re so disappointed.”

 

Leicester opened the scoring in the sixth minute through Dodoo, who netted a hat-trick in the previous round at League One Bury, only for Zarate to equalise shortly before the half hour mark with a 25-yard drive. 

 

England striker Andy Carroll lasted just over an hour after starting a match for the first time since February, although it was King who provided the defining moment as he guided home a Christian Fuchs cross with four minutes of extra-time remaining.

 

It was tough on Spaniard Adrian, who had repelled efforts from Jeff Schlupp and Riyad Mahrez as Leicester dominated the final half an hour.