Jose Mourinho, Manchester United, EFL Cup, Hull City, penalty goal
Reuters

As far as Jose Mourinho is concerned, Manchester United still have their unbeaten run intact, even if the final scoreline of the EFL Cup semifinal second leg will read a 2-1 victory for Hull City.

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While Manchester United lost to Hull on the night, they still went through to the EFL Cup (League Cup) final thanks to a 3-2 aggregate victory, helped by the fact that they won 2-0 in the opening leg of the semifinals at Old Trafford two weeks ago.

Mourinho, though, refused to acknowledge the penalty won by Hull City in the 34th minute, which allowed Tom Huddlestone to put the Tigers in front a minute later.

Paul Pogba would later equalise, before Oumar Niasse's close-range effort gave Hull City a 2-1 win, but Mourinho was far from happy at the penalty awarded to Hull City, a soft one for a push on Harry Maguire by Marcos Rojo, with the Portuguese insisting Manchester United had extended their unbeaten run from 17 to 18.

"I think 18 matches unbeaten is amazing. We didn't lose," Mourinho said. "It was 1-1, 1-1. I only saw two goals. I saw Pogba's goal and their goal was fantastic goal, great action. Great cross, and the guy in far post coming, 1-1."

Penalty or not, Manchester United did lose the match, but Mourinho will take great satisfaction from the fact that his team have made it into the final of a major tournament. Now, Southampton, a team that outclassed Liverpool in the semifinals, await.

"I feel happy," Mourinho added. "We got to Wembley. We had a difficult draw, difficult opponents, difficult matches but we did it. We are there. We beat three Premier League teams, which is not an easy run to be in the final.

"We started the game and the game was in the pocket, we were completely in control and then something happened to open the game and we then had to cope with the game being open. We did that well.

"They [Hull] were a very good team in both matches but we have more power. We were the best team. We could have scored lots of goals in the first match and the game was under control so we deserve to be in the final. I congratulate my players but I don't want to analyse the performance too much."

Despite making several changes to his lineup, Hull still ended up on the winning side and that bodes well for Marco Silva as he attempts to take his team out of the relegation zone. Hull are currently second from bottom, two points from 17th placed Swansea City.

"Our players put in a good team performance and showed good spirit with good attitude and we controlled many moments in the game," Silva said.

"We caused problems for Manchester United and although it is impossible to be happy at this moment because we lost overall, it was a good performance.

"That is three wins from our last three home games and when I arrived here, the team hadn't won for two months. We need to continue this home form because it gives confidence to my players."