Leeds United are out of the Carabao Cup after a penalty shootout defeat in their second round tie against Championship crisis club Sheffield Wednesday.

USMNT goalkeeper Ethan Horvath performed heroics throughout the evening to keep the Premier League side at bay, then when the game finished 1-1 after 90 minutes, he saved two spot kicks to seal a shock victory in this Yorkshire derby.

Leeds keeper Karl Darlow, meanwhile, was to blame for Wednesday’s only goal of normal time, fumbling a powerful cross from Jamal Lowe into his own goal.

The Athletic’s Beren Cross picks apart a humiliating evening for Leeds…

Leeds get exactly what they deserve

This was nothing like what manager Daniel Farke or his players needed three days after Saturday’s 5-0 shellacking in the league at Arsenal. Farke had made nine changes from the weekend and freshened the team up for what, on paper, looked like the perfect fixture to draw a line under that thrashing in north London.

Sheffield Wednesday had made 10 changes of their own and had an average starting age of 21 years old. Their starting line-up included four 20-year-olds and five teenagers. The visitors’ average age was 27 across a team which included seven full internationals. This was men against boys, top flight against second tier, in a stadium with two stands closed as Wednesday fans staged a stay-away protest against the club’s unpopular owner Dejphon Chansiri.

And yet, until substitute Jayden Bogle came riding in as the cavalry halfway through the second half, this was a poor evening for the Premier League outfit. Leeds’ first-half performance was dire: every player was slow, ponderous and disjointed in what they tried, or failed to try, more pertinently.

It was a match they clearly expected to turn up and win in first gear, but all they achieved was sticking the club in reverse. Farke needed a response and a show of fight from his players, some optimism ahead of what is another crunch league game at Elland Road on Saturday against Newcastle.

Even with the second-half recovery (from a very low level), there were major questions of Farke’s tactics, the quality of Leeds’ new signings and the players’ response to such a recent hiding.

The shootout, consisting of three Leeds failures after three home successes, summed up the evening appropriately.

(Michael Regan/Getty Images)Some disappointing debuts (and one bright spot)

There were five full debuts on the night in the Leeds team. Dominic Calvert-Lewin also got his first minutes for the club off the bench.

Centre-backs Jaka Bijol and Sebastiaan Bornauw were called into action plenty of times by the young hosts. Neither was especially composed nor efficient in what they had to carry out. Tackles were clumsy and sometimes mistimed.

Noah Okafor was possibly the one bright spot of the evening for Leeds. The Swiss winger was by far their most effective outlet and repeatedly beat his man, but was unable to test Horvath or craft the assist he wanted.

Sheffield-born Calvert-Lewin came on in the 58th minute and had plenty of chances inside the box but couldn’t hit one cleanly, then skied his penalty in the shootout.

An unusual backdrop to an all-Yorkshire cup tie

The scene at Hillsborough tonight was an odd one. The off-field issues engulfing Wednesday are well-known, and this is not a happy corner of the footballing world.

The pre-match noise in South Yorkshire talked up a boycott by the home fans, a protest against the ownership of Chansiri by withdrawing their support, and their wallets, for the evening. Not everyone got the memo, or maybe did and chose to ignore it, but there were two stands entirely closed at Hillsborough on the night.

Of the 7,801 people in attendance, it was probably a 50-50 split between home and away supporters. Leeds fans, predictably, filled out most of the Leppings Lane End, with the Wednesday crowd in the bottom tier of the main stand. For a competitive cup fixture, the home fans should easily outnumber the away ones, but that was far from the case, and this felt more like a pre-season friendly or a high-profile under-21 game.

(Danny Lawson/Getty Images)What did Farke say?

We will bring you this after he has spoken at the post-match press conference.

What next for Leeds?

Saturday, August 30: Newcastle (Home), Premier League, 5.30pm UK, 12.30pm ET

(Top photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images)