In the last group-stage match, Watford Under-21s lost 4-2 on the road against Ipswich Town, ending their Premier League Cup campaign.
Tudor Mendel gave the home team an early lead, but Zak Fraser-Grante’s goal in the eleventh minute brought the score back to even.
The Hornets need to win to advance to the knockout stages. But Steven Turner quickly handed Ipswich back the lead in the first half, and Tommy Taylor’s goal in the second half gave them a two-goal lead.
The home team quickly regained their two-goal advantage after Mendel finished his brace on the break to eliminate Watford from the competition, but the Hornets persisted and cut the gap in half when Nickson Okosun scored on the rebound.
In this Premier League Cup match, the home team got the lead thanks to a goal by Mendel past Alfie Marriott after nine minutes. However, the lead was short-lived.
Less than two minutes later, Fraser-Grante scored the equalizer with a clean finish after Raul Vancea had done well to first retrieve control and then feed the ball forward to him on the counter.
In the even time that followed, the Hornets were putting together some good movements, with Zavier Massiah-Edwards coming closest after some beautiful play opened up a shot.
Ipswich quickly restored their lead thanks to Turner’s assured finish, and Watford was grateful to Marriott for limiting the deficit to one when the goalie produced a brilliant one-on-one save.
After the half, the Hornets fought valiantly to find a different route through, but captain Taylor gave the home team the crucial next goal.
Watford persisted in their battle as Jonathan Lawson had a terrific chance denied by Charlie Binns, and shortly after, after some excellent build-up play, the goalkeeper was forced to make another save from the same opponent.
Binns was only able to parry the effort into the path of replacement Okosun, who made no mistakes on the rebound, fortunately for the Golden Boys.
Watford needed more goals since they could only advance with a win. Mendel scored his second goal with fewer than five minutes left, but Ipswich capitalized and restored the two-goal deficit on the break.
