Tevez edges United into the last eight

Carlos Tevez ended his 12-match goal drought as Manchester United edged into the League Cup quarter-finals with a 1-0 win against QPR on Tuesday.

Sir Alex Ferguson's second string struggled to make their dominance pay against the Championship side and the Premier League champions had to wait until the 75th minute to make the breakthrough at Old Trafford.

Tevez finally ended QPR's stubborn resistance with a penalty after substitute Danny Welbeck was tripped by Peter Ramage for his first goal in two months and only his second of the season.

But it was far from convincing stuff from United. Gary Neville, Anderson and South Korean star Park Ji-Sung were the only survivors from the United side that lost 2-1 at Arsenal at the weekend.

From Anderson's corner, Daniel Parejo only managed to flick a header across his own six-yard box and Rodrigo Possebon just failed to reach the ball at the far post.

It may only have been the League Cup but there was no difference in Tevez's work-rate and the Argentinian tested the visitors' goalkeeper Radek Cerny with a dipping drive from 25 yards with a quarter of an hour gone.

The managerless Championship side were growing in confidence as United continued to struggle to penetrate them.

But they had a scare midway through the opening period when Cerny spilled Anderson's strike before gathering at the second attempt.

Then Nani robbed Akos Buzsaky down United's left flank but from the Portuguese's cross, Anderson could not get his shot on target at the near post.

Tevez was involved again just after the half-hour, squaring a pass to his left on the edge of the area, but Park scuffed his shot under pressure from Rangers substitute Patrick Agyemang.

Jonny Evans failed to get enough power on a header from Nani's corner and from a short corner on the left, Tevez failed to hit the target from three yards from John O'Shea's cross.

United were fired up after the restart but Cerny was untroubled once again as Nani cut in from the left and struck wide of goal.

Anderson's free-kick was easily held by Cerny and Park's shot from outside the area also failed to trouble the Czech goalkeeper.

Eleven minutes after the restart, United finally produced a decent effort on goal when Rafael Da Silva skipped past two Rangers players and slipped the ball to Park, whose drilled effort from 15 yards beat Cerny but bounced away off the post.

Tevez found some space shortly after when Park blocked Damion Stewart but Cerny managed to tip the Argentinian's effort from 12 yards over the bar.

Just after the hour, United stretched the visitors once again when Tevez found Anderson on the left but the Brazilian's low strike was blocked by Cerny.

The visitors finally threatened with just over a quarter of an hour left when substitute Emmanuel Ledesma skipped inside John O'Shea but Dexter Blackstock could not get enough power to seriously trouble Tomasz Kuszczak.

But at the other end, Nani slipped through for Welbeck and the substitute's run was ended by Ramage's trip six yards out.

And from the resulting penalty, Tevez sent Cerny the wrong way to give United the lead.

The visitors thought they had a lifeline eight minutes from the end but Samuel Di Carmine's effort was ruled out for offside.