Man City, Birmingham out of League Cup; MU advances

Agencies, London

Premier League sides Birmingham City and Manchester City made an early exit Tuesday from the third-round of England's League Cup.

First-division Preston defeated Birmingham City 2-0 with City playing with only 10 men from the 28th minute.

Man City went down 1-0 at second-division Wigan, an embarrassing loss for City with its derby against Manchester United looming on Saturday.

Manchester United, with David Beckham scoring the winner on a late penalty, advanced over first-division Leicester 2-0.

Beckham, with 10 minutes left in the match, scored on a penalty to oust first-division Leicester. Beckham started the match despite a threat over the weekend to kidnap his wife and two young sons.

Kieran Richardson made it 2-0 for Manchester United in injury time.

In the night's other League Cup game, Rotherham won 3-1 at fellow first-division side Wimbledon before only 664 fans. A week ago Wimbledon played the same Rotherham side at Selhurst Park and drew only 849 fans - the smallest crowd ever at a first-division game.

The lack of support stems from the controversial decision in May to allow Wimbledon to relocate to Milton Keynes, 110 kilometers northwest of its London base. Fans are vehemently against the idea and are boycotting games.

In Madrid, King's Cup holder Deportivo Coruna needed an injury-time goal from Albert Luque to beat 10-man Racing Ferrol 4-3 on Tuesday and make it through to the third round of the competition.

Depor took the lead in a furiously contested local derby with a Diego Tristan strike on 20 minutes but two goals from Angel Cuellar put the second division side ahead by the 55th minute.

Tristan bagged his second on the hour and Javier Irureta's side took advantage of the sending-off of French defender Romain Rambier to take the lead through Luque on 74 minutes, the Spanish international converting a pass from Roy Makaay.

Japanese striker Sotaro Yasunaga equalized eight minutes from time but Luque popped up to send the top-flight side through with just seconds remaining.

Real Mallorca were also pushed to the limit by third division Hercules, eventually coming through on penalties after 120 goalless minutes.

In Berlin, Borussia Dortmund, whose only loss this season was to Arsenal, was sent to a shocking 3-0 defeat by second division club SC Freiburg Tuesday in the German Cup.

Soumaila Coulibaly caught the Bundesliga club cold with a ninth minute header, while Jan Maenner scored for Freiburg in the 41st and Andreas Zeyer in the 54th.

The loss came just four days before Dortmund faces Bayern Munich for control of the Bundesliga table. According to the German media, Dortmund coach Matthias Sammer's charges will also battle the team it now has replaced as Germany's top club.

In the day's second big match, third-placed Bundesliga club 1860 Munich beat Stefan Effenberg-led VfL Wolfsburg 8-7 in penalties after regulation and extra period ended 2-2.

Arminia Bielefeld was the third Bundesliga club beaten, falling 1-0 to Rot-Weiss Oberhausen. Hansa Rostock and Hamburger SV, two other first division clubs, did advance into the third round.

Hamburg beat MSV Duisburg 2-0 and Hansa Rostock ousted Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0. In other matches, FC Cologne blasted TSG Hoffenheim 5-1 and Unterhaching edged Union Berlin 1-0.