Man United shocked by fourth-tier Grimsby Town in penalty kicks, bounced from League Cup in second round

The hits keep on coming for Ruben Amorim's Manchester United, who clawed their way back from a 2-0 deficit on Wednesday only to lose 12-11 in a penalty shootout to League Two side Grimsby Town and exit the ELF Cup in the second round.

Grimsby struck first with the game's opening goal in the 22nd minute courtesy of Charles Vernam, the hosts taking advantage after a tepid start to play for the visitors. United outpossessed Grimsby 58.2% to 41.8% at that point, but the two sides had each taken three shots, Grimsby clearly the more efficient team. The hosts had two shots on goal and 0.24 expected goals while the Red Devils had yet to put a single attempt on frame and had mustered up just 0.1 expected goals at that point in the game.

Things went from bad to worse for United eight minutes later, when Grimsby scored a second thanks to Tyrell Warren on a corner. United goalkeeper Andre Onana seemed to be in perfect position to grab the inswinging ball, making a well-timed jump to do so, but he never actually got ahold of the ball and Warren was able to put it into the back of an empty net.

Amorim made three halftime changes and in a more dominant second half that saw the Red Devils take more attacking initiative, they came up with two late goals to send the match to penalties. First came Bryan Mbeumo's goal in the 75th minute, which saw the substitute make a run to the edge of the penalty area before taking a clinical shot. Harry Maguire, though, leveled the score in the 89th minute with a classic header off a set piece to send the match to penalties.

Onana made amends for his first half error by making a save on Clarke Oduor's penalty early on in the shootout and United were on the cusp of advancing, but Grimsby goalkeeper Christy Pym made a save on Matheus Cunha's spot kick, sending the shootout into sudden death. The penalty shootout was so lengthy that both goalkeepers stood at the spot and scored, requiring several players to take part in a second round of spot kicks. In the end, Mbeumo hit the crossbar in the 13th round to ensure Grimsby would go through after a 12-11 win in the shootout.

United are off to a winless start to the season with one loss and two draws, extending Amorim's poor run of form since taking the helm at United in November.