Angels Links: Wild day in the Carabao Cup

Championship side Bristol City stun Manchester United with last minute winner, Chelsea also win late

Bristol City shocked Premier League titans Manchester United with a 2-1 win in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday. Bristol took the lead before Zlatan Ibrahimovic equalized for United after that. Then two minutes into stoppage time, Korey Smith scored the dramatic late winner, sending the stadium into wild celebrations. Manchester United had their chances to win the game, but they were pretty wasteful in the finishing department. Elsewhere, Chelsea also grabbed a late winner over Bournemouth 2-1. It was particularly heartbreaking for Bournemouth, as they had just equalized on 90 minutes by Dan Gosling. But almost immediately Chelsea grabbed their lead back, Eden Hazard taking a through ball before backheeling it right to Alvaro Morata, who finished the game off.

Nashville awarded next MLS expansion slot

On Wednesday MLS announced that Nashville would be getting the next MLS expansion slot. Nashville was awarded the spot after a solid ownership group was assembled, and a stadium location at the Nashville Fairgrounds was decided with the support of local government. Nashville will become the third MLS team based in the southeast, following Orlando City and Atlanta. MLS is supposed to award one more expansion spot this year, and the cities left in the running for that spot are Detroit, Cincinnati, and Sacramento.

Kylian Mbappe unsure of his future in a couple of years

Kylian Mbappe is one of those players who has had a meteoric rise in a short period of time. He went from a virtual unknown a few years ago two part of a trio of attacking stars on arguably the best team in Europe. Things have been such a wirlwind for Mbappe that he’s not sure where he will be in a couple of years. “I had some plans for my career, but since nothing has happened as planned and I'm already doing better than I imagined a few months ago, it's difficult to project...Where will I be in two years? Frankly, I don't know." Mbappe gave these quotes in an interview with France Football. It’s not surprising he would feel this way. He’s still so young and so talented, he could realistically go anywhere. Paris Saint-Germain are a great team, but Mbappe would fit in anywhere. Real Madrid, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Manchester City? For Mbappe, the sky is the limit.

Manchester City are running the league because they crushed it in the transfer market

I mean in a sense it’s an obvious statement, that Manchester City are so good because they have the best players, and they bought most of those players. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. The Galacticos-era Real Madrid team spent a ton on players, and not just players, but “stars” and they underachieved relative to their price tag and their expectations. Manchester United spent a ton on players, and while they are better than the Louis Van Gaal era, they are still not what they’ve been since Sir Alex left. Manchester City have managed to balance buying good players with finding ones who will also excel in Pep Guardiola’s system. What’s possibly worrisome for everyone else, City show no signs of slowing down in the Guardiola era.

What do you think? Leave a comment below!