Departing Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini insisted the overriding principle of fielding Willy Caballero was stronger than his desire to win the Capital One Cup after his understudy goalkeeper proved the matchwinner at Wembley yesterday.
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Willy Caballero’s penalty heroics were then decisive.
“All teams will lose points so we will continue, try to win the next game against Liverpool and go until the end”.
“I hope we can win more trophies”. But the Argentine veteran keeper rewarded the loyalty of his manager; yesterday’s win at Wembley ensured at least one trophy for Pellegrini in his final season, before Pep Guardiola takes over at the helm in the summer.
Captain Jordan Henderson, who’s taken penalties for Liverpool before, didn’t take one either.
Pellegrini even said he was happy to endure a nerve-jangling shootout so Caballero could grab the spotlight. “You can not say “I don’t care, it’s not important”, he said. Very happy for Willy Caballero because I think that he deserved this moment.
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.
“Caballero – incredible! He was so fast and waited to the last second to go to the ball and he did it very well”.
Jurgen Klopp believes it is important for Liverpool to feel the full pain of their League Cup final defeat to Manchester City and use it to strike back as they target future success.
“I’m very happy, not because it is my final season but for a lot of reasons”.
“We tried everything. I can be proud of a lot of things, but to be honest I expect we can do these things, so it’s not easy to be proud of things you think is normal”. He said: “I am blessed that he gave me the opportunity to come here and play in this final and win this cup”. We had a big chance with another few situations. We left everything out on the pitch.
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“They were playing well but we were creating chances”.
