2006 Football League Cup final

2006 Football League Cup Final
Event	2005–06 Football League Cup
Date	26 February 2006
Venue	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
Man of the Match	Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)
Referee	Alan Wiley (Staffordshire)
Attendance	66,866
Weather	Mostly cloudy; 6 °C (43 °F)
	← 2005 2007 →

The 2006 Football League Cup Final also known as the 2006 Carling Cup Final for sponsorship reasons, was played between Manchester United and Wigan Athletic on 26 February 2006. Manchester United won the match comfortably, by four goals to nil. Louis Saha and Cristiano Ronaldo both scored one goal, and Wayne Rooney scored twice. For the trophy presentation, the Manchester United players wore special shirts reading "For You Smudge", referring to Alan Smith, who had broken his left leg during a recent FA Cup match against Liverpool.^[3] Wigan goalkeeper Mike Pollitt picked up a hamstring injury after just 14 minutes, cutting short a dream cup final for the journeyman player, who started his career with the Red Devils.

Road to Cardiff

**Wigan**
Round 2^[4]	Wigan Athletic	1–0	AFC Bournemouth
Round 3	Wigan Athletic	3–0	Watford
Round 4	Wigan Athletic	1–0	Newcastle United
Round 5	Wigan Athletic	2–0	Bolton Wanderers
Semi-final (1st leg)	Wigan Athletic	1–0	Arsenal
Semi-final (2nd leg)	Arsenal	2–1	Wigan Athletic
	(2–2 on aggregate. Wigan Athletic won on away goals)

Match details

26 February 2006

15:00

Manchester United	4–0	Wigan Athletic
Rooney 33', 61' Saha 55' Ronaldo 59'	Report

Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

Attendance: 66,866

Referee: Alan Wiley (Staffordshire)

Manchester United

Wigan Athletic


GK	19	Edwin van der Sar
RB	2	Gary Neville (c)
CB	6	Wes Brown		83'
CB	5	Rio Ferdinand
LB	27	Mikaël Silvestre		83'
RM	7	Cristiano Ronaldo	60'	73'
CM	22	John O'Shea
CM	11	Ryan Giggs
LM	13	Park Ji-sung
SS	8	Wayne Rooney
CF	9	Louis Saha
Substitutes:
GK	1	Tim Howard
DF	3	Patrice Evra		83'
DF	15	Nemanja Vidić		83'
MF	23	Kieran Richardson		73'
FW	10	Ruud van Nistelrooy
Manager:
Sir Alex Ferguson


GK	12	Mike Pollitt		14'
RB	2	Pascal Chimbonda
CB	16	Arjan de Zeeuw (c)	45'
CB	6	Stéphane Henchoz		62'
LB	26	Leighton Baines
RM	21	Jimmy Bullard
CM	11	Graham Kavanagh		72'
CM	19	Paul Scharner
LM	20	Gary Teale
CF	7	Henri Camara
CF	30	Jason Roberts
Substitutes:
GK	1	John Filan		14'
DF	4	Matt Jackson
MF	8	Andreas Johansson
MF	23	Reto Ziegler		72'
FW	10	Lee McCulloch		62'
Manager:
Paul Jewell