Segun Akanni, Toronto, Canada Manchester United has won the 2017 EFL Cup after Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s late header earned his side a 3-2 victory over Southampton.
It appeared that the game was heading towards extra time until the 35-year-old followed up his earlier free kick with his 26th goal of the season.
Southampton were the better team throughout the final, but they will look back on two refereeing decisions, which went against them, with Manolo Gabbiadini seeing an early goal wrongly disallowed and Jesse Lingard avoiding a second yellow card early in the second half.
The Saints should have gone ahead in the 11th minute when Gabbiadini converted Cedric Soares cross into the net from close range, but the assistant flagged Ryan Bertrand – who was standing behind Gabbiadini – offside.
They remained on top but in the 19th minute, United took the lead against the run of play after Zlatan Ibrahimovic curled a free kick into the corner from 25 yards.
United remained dangerous on the break, however, and they doubled their advantage when the Southampton defence did not get near to Jesse Lingard on the edge of the area and he was able to slot the ball into the bottom corner from 16 yards.
Frustration was starting to get the better of Southampton but in the first minute of added-on time, they halved the deficit when Gabbiadini was able to prod home from close range after being found by a low cross from Ward-Prowse.
Moments after the restart, De Gea made another fine intervention to deny Redmond’s stinging volley but from the resulting corner, Southampton got back on level terms.
After United failed to deal with the set piece, the ball fell invitingly to Gabbiadini, who held off the attentions of Chris Smalling to volley into the bottom corner from 10 yards.
It was an exceptional finish from the January signing, who took his tally to five goals in three games, and the Saints should have been further boosted by the sending off of Lingard, but the referee decided against handing the midfielder a booking for a cynical trip on Redmond.
Shortly after the hour mark, Southampton came within inches of completing the turnaround when Oriol Romeu rose above Pogba to get a header on goal but his effort hit the outside of the post before United cleared.
Chances became few and far between as the second half progressed, but Lingard should have netted his second with 15 minutes remaining when being found at the back post but he sliced his volley over the crossbar.
Both teams had opportunities during the final 10 minutes, with Marcus Rashford forcing a save out of Forster and Southampton failing to find a finishing touch on a number of occasions, but with three minutes left, Ibrahimovic struck for the second time in the match.
A perfectly-weighted cross from Ander Herrera found the Swede six yards from goal and he made no mistake in powering a header past the goalkeeper.
