Back-up goalkeeper Willy Caballero proved the hero for City on Sunday with three penalty saves in the shoot-out.
Advertisement
City started the second half brighter and took the lead in the 49th minute when Reds keeper Simon Mignolet failed to deal with a cross shot by Fernandinho.
When Yaya Toure converted the winning kick for City, it was not him but Caballero who was mobbed, notes Henry Winter in The Times.
Man City goalkeeper Willy Caballero believes he has repaid manager Manuel Pellegrini’s faith to select him for the final following his heroics during the penalty shootout.
“I think Willy deserved to be in goal because he had been playing in this cup from the beginning”.
“We played better than Liverpool”. “I’d rather lose the title than lose my word”, he said.
When a dramatic Capital One Cup final went to penalties, the odds favoured Liverpool – who had never lost a final shootout and whose German manager, Jurgen Klopp, comes from the spiritual home of sudden death from the spot.
Pellegrini had fielded a weakened side against Chelsea in the FA Cup, mindful of a midweek trip to Dynamo Kiev in the last 16 of the Champions League as well as Sunday’s final.
“I was speaking to Phil Thompson on Saturday and we thought whoever won the cup final would probably lose this game”.
But they head to Anfield, a ground where they have failed to win on their past 12 Premier League attempts, on the back of consecutive league defeats to top-two teams Leicester City and Tottenham. It is not the best moment but tomorrow morning maybe we can change everything. “The negative results of our rivals are always important but they are useless if we do not win next Wednesday against Liverpool”. He welcomed Arsenal’s defeat to Manchester United on 28 February as it gives City renewed hope in their bid to win the Premier League title. We were in this situation before a few years ago even when we won the league, that we were nine points behind the leaders, and we still have a game in hand.
“You have to try to take positives from it and learn from these experiences”, he said.
Advertisement
“You know you can fall down, but you have to stand up”. We work the whole day. We all have to feel it now. Nothing is easy in this moment, but we can see if we carry on working really hard then there is new light at the end of the tunnel.
