City retain Carabao Cup

Carabao Cup Final: Aston Villa 1-2 Manchester City

Manchester City won their third League Cup in as many years as they beat Aston Villa 2-1 at Wembley in a hotly contested game.

City were hot favourites coming into the final having come through a semi-final with Manchester United whilst Aston Villa beat high-flying Leicester City to book their place in the final. 

There was a rare start for 19-year-old Phil Foden as Pep Guardiola made several changes to the team that won at Real Madrid during the week. Aston Villa reverted to a back four for only the second time in 2020. 

Both teams had the ball in the early stages with Villa trying to get the ball to Jack Grealish at every opportunity as he was the player that could make things happen. 

It was City who drew first blood on the 20th minute after a very well-worked goal. Rodri clipped a lovely pass into Foden after he made a great run and he nodded the ball back to Sergio Aguero who smashed the ball home. A good start for City and Aguero who was looking for his fifth win in the competition. 

Then on the half-hour mark City were controversially 2-0 up. City were given a corner as the Linesman judged that the ball had come off Grealish when replays showed it actually came off Ilkay Gundogan. The corner was floated in and Rodri had a free header which was rifled into the bottom corner. 

The Blues continued to dominate and were stretching the game well with Foden proving to be a handful for the Villa defence. It looked like it could be a cricket score by half-time but a mistake from John Stones saw Villa right back in it. 

Stones fell over trying to clear the ball and that let Mbwana Samatta head in from Anwar El Ghazi's cross four minutes before the interval.

In the second half, City pushed for a third and they nearly got it with the ever-dangerous Foden seeing a 52nd minute 15-yard half volley narrowly miss the target.

City thought they had the crucial third on 74 minutes, Rodri again powering in a header from a De Bruyne but Villa keeper Orjan Nyland produced a superb save to keep the effort out.

Villa put on the pressure in the final minutes as they launched long balls and pushed everyone forward. They were agonisingly close to forcing extra time when Bjorn Engels saw his header from a corner turned on to the woodwork superbly by keeper Claudio Bravo.

The win means Pep Guardiola has won 8 trophies with City since becoming manager in 2016. Phil Foden was awarded the man of the match award after the game and he deserved it after a great performance and one that shows he is ready for more first-team action.