League Cup: Swansea 1 Middlesbrough 0

Swansea City secured their passage into the semi-finals of the League Cup with a 1-0 win over Championship outfit Middlesbrough.

A late Sebastian Hines own goal was all that separated the teams at Liberty Stadium as Swansea reached the League Cup semi-finals for the first time in the club’s history.

The only chance of note in the opening 20 minutes fell to the feet of ex-Everton forward Lukas Jutkiewicz, but his poor control saw him squander the chance to test Gerhard Tremmel in goal.

The hosts’ German goalkeeper was called into action just a minute later when former Sunderland midfielder Grant Leadbitter forced him to make a comfortable save from his effort from just outside the box.

Middlesbrough continued to prove more than a match for their Premier League opponents but came close to falling behind just past the half-hour mark when Itay Shechter guided his header on target though his effort lacked power.

Despite scoring freely over recent weeks, Swansea struggled to create any real chances and both sets of players headed into the half-time interval with the match still goalless.

The second half opened with both teams seemingly intent on scoring a long-range effort but like much of the match up until that point, all of the attempts lacked any real quality.

The best chance of the match arrived in the 74th minute when Swansea’s on-loan Villarreal midfielder Julien De Guzman forced Jason Steele into a full length save from a free-kick to keep the game goalless.

However, the highly-rated Steele was unable to stop his side from falling behind eight minutes later.

De Guzman was again in the thick of the action, this time playing in a corner which was put into his own net by Hines.

As much as the visitors tried to push for a goal to take the match into extra time they failed to create any real chances and will be hoping to get back to winning ways in the Championship at the weekend.

Swansea’s victory sees them reach the final four alongside Aston Villa and giant killers Bradford City, who dramatically beat Arsenal on penalties on Tuesday, with Leeds United and Chelsea to meet next week for the final place.