Express. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express.
Slaven Bilic: What I really thought of West Ham's EFL Cup defeat to Manchester United
WEST HAM boss Slaven Bilic has admitted his side fully deserved to lose to Manchester United last night.
Bilic gives brutally honest response to EFL Cup defeat
Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Anthony Martial both scored twice as Manchester United beat West Ham 4-1 to reach the semi-finals of the EFL Cup.
Former United youngster Ashley Fletcher had equalised at Old Trafford, his first senior goal for the Hammers, to make it level at half-time.
And for Bilic, the root of their issues were easy to pinpoint as they conceded inside the opening three minutes of both halves either side of Fletcher's leveller.
Slaven Bilic admits Manchester United deserved to beat his West Ham side
West Ham failed to capitalise on Ashley Fletcher's equaliser
"I'm very disappointed, they deserved it," said the Croatian.
"You can't have a slow start anywhere, especially not here because they're good anyway but when they're one up they hit on the counter attack, have amazing quality and are very direct and punish you.
"They could've scored a second one after the first but we defended and then came back into it.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Anthony Martial both scored twice against West Ham
"At half-time we said we couldn't allow them to do it again but it was exactly the same start in the second half.
"It's hard to come back twice and then they scored the third one and that's them totally in control of the game. You can't expect anything here when you have such a slow start to the game."
Jose Mourinho's United will now face Hull - managed by the club's former assistant manager Mike Phelan - in the EFL Cup semi-finals.
Would you like to receive news notifications from Daily Express?