Manta League Cup Round 5

Eight teams are left to battle it out for a place in the IAG history books and even more importantly - the 2 million the League Cup winner will get. And unlike in the last article, I'll take a slightly more detailed look at the fixtures that determined the quarter-finalists.

Castle King FC 3-2 Bulletboys (ET)
It took 23 whole shots and 120 minutes for Castle King's offense to bring down the resilient Bulletboys. After a late equalizer by the away side, the seemingly won match was taken into extra time at 1-1 and it took only 4 minutes - between the 100th and 103rd for both teams to exchange a further 3 goals. Castle King's ace striker in this tournament Vazuez finally capitalized on the abundant free space he was given scoring the winning goal for his side and despite Vyse scoring his second of the game for Bulletboys in the following attack, the home team held on for the win and their second ever place in the quarter-finals. Credit must also be given to the other Castle King striker New who scored the first and second goals for his team.

Chaos Shumen 2-2 Botev Plovdiv (3-5 after penalties)
In it's 17th appearance, the Bulgarian derby between Chaos Shumen and Botev Plovdiv was bound to be a close and thrilling game. In their previous 3 meetings in cup competitions, Botev had always run out winners from the clash and this time it was no different. The Plovdiv team made good use of their possession and scored an early goal, which Chaos managed to cancel out as late as the 94th minute. Scorer of the first goal for Botev Lysen gave his side the lead again in extra-time, but Chaos hitman Yates leveled the score again and the game went to penalties. At that point it was all up to chance and a single miss by the home side handed the victory to Botev.

Inter Milager 2-1 Scudders (ET)
This was bound to be a close game and indeed it took a goal 4 minutes from the end of extra-time to determine the winner. And while the Inter forward Much probably had a little word with his manager for scoring once from 6 shots, then Scudders manager Guermano must have made his squad an all-shooting training schedule, as he didn't have even one player with more than a single shot registered for the whole game. This might have been enough for striker Sukova to tie the match in normal time, but nobody else could cancel out the lead given to Inter by Much in the 116th minute.

Kif Villans 1-2 High Plains Drifters
The undisputed most impressive act of giantkilling in the cup thus far. While many were already aware of Drifters manager FooQ's qualities, this away victory to the current Premiership number 1 and most probable league cup winner, showed his brilliance to the entire Manta world. The Villans' constant possession of the ball only payed off once when Hirsch tied the game in the 73rd after Burnell had opened the scoring and given High Plains the lead 5 minutes earlier. The home fans were probably getting ready for a pre-extra time pint when Berthiaume stunned the crowd with the winning goal of the game in the 87th.

North London FC 3-1 Kingriver
Who would've thought a team which played in the 1st round of the cup would reach this far? If you're one of the few who would, then surely even you had doubts as to North London's ability to win this game against 113 ranked Kingriver. Well, against all odds the Division 1 side cruised past their 600 better ranked opposition with a brace from Sumner and a 3rd by Mullen, which took both forwards to 6 goals in the cup. With no cards received in this game, North London will be certain to have their best available for the next round and man of the match right back Clavette will be looking to supply match deciding assists in the next round which is the best North London have ever achieved.

Smirnenski United 1-3 Easyfit Walsall
While not particularly impressive throughout the game, Easyfit took a 3 goal lead and only conceded 7 minutes from full time, which was nowhere near enough to stop them from winning the game. It's totti's second quarter-final in a row and he'll be having his eye on the semi-final he couldn't reached last season. Grogan's opener also was his 6th goal of the competition equaling him to 3 other players with the same tally on 2nd.

The Trumpton Riots 0-2 Rex Mundi
A 2000+ ranked team facing a former two time League Cup winner and top 100 club. Needless to say bookies weren't putting odds in Trumpton's favor. Rex went on to comfortably win the game with a goal in each half and with Noodle FC and Kif Villans out could be considered the title main contenders alongside Botev Plovdiv.

Warlords 1-1 Northbankhighbury (4-3 after penalties)
The second team ranked outside the top 500 to progress to the quarters was Warlords from Division 4. Having taken the lead against the newly promoted Premiership side early in the game, Warlords supporters were seriously disappointed to see Mann equalize for Northbankhighbury in the 91st, but the penalties went the home side's way and ensured a new record league cup performance for Warlords.


Stats of the competition after round 5

Teams
Team	Div	GF	GA	ET	Pen	H	A
Botev Plovdiv	Prem	11	5	0	1	1	3
Castle King FC	Prem	11	4	2	0	4	0
Easyfit Walsall	Prem	10	3	0	0	1	3
High Plains Drifters	Prem	12	5	1	0	1	3
Inter Milager	Prem	9	3	2	0	4	0
North London FC	Div 1	13	2	0	0	4	1
Rex Mundi	Prem	12	1	0	0	1	3
Warlords	Div 4	6	2	1	1	2	2

GF = goals for
GA = goals against
ET = games gone into extra time
Pen = games gone into penalties
H = games at home
A = games away

Top scorers
Player	Team	Goals
M Campagne	High Plains Drifters	7
B Vazuez	Castle King FC	6
E Grogan	Easyfit Walsall	6
A Sumner	North London FC	6
D Mullen	North London FC	6

This article will be further expanded with information about the other games in the next few days.