Manchester City has reclaimed England’s League Cup through a penalty shootout at Wembley.
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City midfielder Fernandinho put Pellegrini’s men ahead early in the second half, but an 83rd-minute strike from Philippe Coutinho levelled the game at 1-1.
Emre Can bagged a panenka but Coutinho, Lucas and Adam Lallana missed their efforts and Yaya Toure scored the victor before James Milner even had the chance to take his spot-kick.
“I think the game on Sunday showed it is possible for us to win”.
“We played better than Liverpool”.
“If I could choose to win in any way, it would be this: with Willy as the hero”, Pellegrini said, crediting Hart for his role in the victory as well.
Manchester City face Liverpool again on Wednesday, this time in the Premier League.
Pellegrini came in for criticism for selecting a youthful team nearly completely devoid of recognizable names for City’s trip to Stamford Bridge in the FA Cup fifth round, which Chelsea won 5-1.
“I am disappointed of course with the end”.
City are all-but in the Champions League quarter-finals after an impressive showing at Dynamo Kiev in midweek and remain outsiders to win the Barclays Premier League as they sit fourth.
“Going to extra time and penalties is hard but at the end of the day we are happy because we won”.
“Maybe most of the media were waiting for him to make a mistake and criticise my decision but I promised he would play both cups”, he added. “You have to feel a defeat, you can’t say it’s not important”, the German said. We lost and it doesn’t feel too good.
Rather than dash after his teammates and celebrate, the Belgian veteran immediately – nearly instinctively – went to his Liverpool colleagues to console them. “Pleased with a lot of things I saw in the game”, Klopp said on Sky Sports.
If my press officer would allow me to say s***, I’d say s***.
Bizarrely, when Mignolet watches the match analysis back, he will also be able to recognise some positives as he did make two or three excellent saves, including two from City’s dangerman Sergio Aguero to keep his team in the game.
“You know you can fall down, but you have to stand up”.
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“You need a bit of luck in a penalty shoot-out but we probably needed to shoot a bit better”, Klopp said. The last 30 minutes of the match were more dynamic and City’s keeper Caballero made a world-class save from Belgian Divock Origi’s header, nine minutes before penalties.
