Guardiola’s team lifts its ninth league trophy and the Spanish coach’s fifth, making him the manager with the most wins in this competition
Manchester City faced Arsenal on March 22 in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley. The Citizens won the match 2-0 thanks to two goals from Nico O’Reilly and a stellar performance by James Trafford.
How were the teams doing heading into the match?
Arsenal entered the final in one of the club’s best runs of form. The Gunners were coming off beating Leverkusen in the Champions League and opened the gap to 9 points to their league rivals, Manchester City.
Although they were in good form, the last-minute absences of Eze and Timber were a major blow that was felt during the match.
For their part, Manchester City were going through a rough patch. They were coming off a crushing defeat in the Champions League round of 16 against Real Madrid, losing 5-1 on aggregate, and had drawn their last two matches.
Furthermore, Erling Haaland was in very poor form and had scored only 2 goals in his last 6 matches leading up to the final. The Manchester side could not count on Guehi because he was not registered for the cup, and Ruben Dias was out for the final due to injury.
The match kicks off
The start of the first half gave us hope that it would be a great game full of chances, after James Trafford made a triple save that kept City in the game.
But those hopes faded quickly, and for the rest of the first half, the two teams showed each other a lot of respect, with neither able to create a dangerous chance.
In the second half, the story was very different for one of the teams. Guardiola’s side came out firing on all cylinders and pinned Arsenal back in their own half early in the second half.
The first goal came after a mistake by Kepa, who had already failed to clear the ball and was shown a yellow card for a tackle on Doku. The cross from City’s fullback slipped through the Spanish goalkeeper’s hands, and Nico O’Reilly tapped it into the empty net to make it 0-1.
The 0-2 also came from a similar play. Another cross, this time from Matheus Nunes, found O’Reilly alone at the far post, who placed the ball in a spot Kepa couldn’t reach.
After going down 0-2, City dropped back and let Arsenal come at them. Although Arsenal hit the post twice, they were unable to create any clear-cut chances, and Manchester City claimed their ninth Carabao Cup, making a statement in their battle against Arsenal this season.
Who do you think will win the league? Who would win if they faced each other in the FA Cup?