Cardiff battled through to the League Cup final on Tuesday, overcoming a first leg deficit to defeat Championship rivals Crystal Palace on penalties. Palace, who had captain Patrick McCarthy sent off late in the game, had withstood wave after wave of Cardiff pressure to take the match to a penalty shoot-out after the tie finished 1-1 on aggregate.
But the Eagles' nerves failed them in the shoot-out, with Jermaine Easter, Sean Scannell and Jonathan Parr all missing from the spot as Cardiff booked a place in the final against either Liverpool or Manchester City. Cardiff clinched victory when Parr's penalty flew high and wide to spark wild celebrations amongst the Bluebirds fans. The game had gone to spot-kicks after Anthony Gardner - the goal hero for Palace in the first leg - scored an own goal after only seven minutes to give Cardiff the initiative in a frenetic opening spell.
Gardner could only watch in horror after he got on the end of a Craig Conway cross to head past stranded keeper Julian Speroni into his own net. Cardiff dominated for much of the match, carving out a string of opportunities to take the lead but unable to find the killer touch in front of goal as Palace clung on. Full-back Andrew Taylor bludgeoned a volley over the bar and veteran Scottish striker Kenny Miller should have done better when gifted an opportunity after a poor headed clearance by Parr fell to Aron Gunnarsson.
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