Aston Villa managed to overcome Leicester City 2-1 at Villa Park on Tuesday (Jan 28) evening thanks to an injury-time winner from Egyptian Trezeguet.
Manchester City, already in control after their first leg 3-1 triumph, managed to overcome rivals Manchester United last night (Jan 29) despite losing 0-1, advancing 3-2 on aggregate to their third successive League Cup final.
However, City boss Pep Guardiola was not happy and called on his side to learn lessons from the defeat.
The holders enjoyed the vast majority of the chances but could not find a way past the inspired David de Gea and went behind to United’s first attempt on goal 10 minutes before half-time when Nemanja Matic fired home.
United’s hopes of completing a miraculous comeback were extinguished when Matic was then sent-off 15 minutes from time and City held on.
‘We got sloppy’
“In 180 minutes we were better than United,” said Guardiola. “We created chances to score a lot of goals and didn’t convert. We need to learn to be more clinical.”
City started like they did in racing into a 3-0 lead within 38 minutes of the first leg at Old Trafford as they swarmed all over the visitors, who had De Gea to thank for keeping them in the tie.
“I can’t really comprehend how we lost this game,” said City midfielder Kevin de Bruyne. “I think we got sloppy.
“For me Manchester United didn’t have one chance today.”
Sergio Aguero was first to threaten with a diving header that the Spaniard parried to safety before using his legs to repel Riyad Mahrez’s effort.
Bernardo Silva flashed a shot across goal before more De Gea acrobatics denied Aguero again at his near post.
United had not even mustered a shot in anger for the first 35 minutes, but suddenly the tie was back in the balance when Matic connected sweetly from the edge of the box after City failed to clear a free-kick into the box.
The hosts did have the ball in the net before half-time when Raheem Sterling finished off a flowing team move, but the England international was denied his first ever goal against United by an offside flag.
Sterling contrived to miss another glorious chance to kill the tie off just before the hour mark as he rounded De Gea but blasted over with just defenders on the line to beat.
Guardiola then could not believe his eyes when David Silva tried to tee up Ilkay Gundogan rather than shoot with just De Gea to beat after Harry Maguire was caught in possession.
The tension among the home support was eased when Matic finally paid for persistent fouling when he chopped down Ilkay Gundogan to cut short a City counter-attack.
“It’s hard to go here and score a goal with 11, nevermind 10,” said United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. “It’s never a sending off for me - it’s a joke.”
Aguero finally beat De Gea with a deft finish only to also be flagged offside in the closing stages as United salvaged some pride, if not their chances of a first trophy since 2017.
“I’m so proud of these players,” added Solskjaer. “They’ve beaten City now twice at their place. They’ve given us everything.”
United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has not been present at recent games as animosity towards his part in the club’s declining fortunes on the field has grown.
However, Woodward was in attendance at the Etihad just a day after a hooded mob attacked his home with flares and graffiti (see story here).
Villa leave it late
In the previous night’s other semi-final at Villa Park, Trezeguet struck deep into stoppage time to send Aston Villa into their first League Cup final for a decade with a 2-1 win over Leicester, meaning they progressed to Wembley 3-2 on aggregate.
Matt Target’s early opener put Villa in front, but Leicester enjoyed the majority of possession and chances and finally found a way past Orjan Nyland when Kelechi Iheanacho levelled 18 minutes from time.
However, Villa snatched victory when Trezeguet connected perfectly with fellow Egyptian Ahmed Elmohamady’s cross three minutes into added time.
Defeat ends Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers’s run of winning 31 straight domestic cup ties after a dominant spell at Celtic and he will rue his side’s inability to turn their dominance of the game into goals.
The visitors started with top scorer Jamie Vardy on the bench as he was eased back into action after a glute injury, but the Foxes still blasted out of the traps.
Iheanacho was denied in the first of a string of big saves by Nyland in the Villa goal inside the first three minutes.
James Maddison then had a hat-trick of efforts, two of which brought saves from Nyland.
However, it was Villa who struck first when the impressive Jack Grealish teed up Targett to fire across Kasper Schmeichel 12 minutes in.
Nyland may not even have played if Villa’s new number one Pepe Reina had been fit to play, but the Norwegian was inspired as he then produced his best save of the night to turn Youri Tielemans’s piledriver onto the bar.
Maddison was furious moments later when he saw another effort repelled by the arm of Marvelous Nakamba.
Mbwana Samatta was making his Villa debut after a £8.5 million ($11 million) switch from Genk, but his first experience of Villa Park is not one the Tanzanian will remember fondly as he somehow failed to turn home another brilliant Grealish delivery early in the second half.
That could have proved the knockout blow for Leicester, but instead they were very much back in the tie when an explosive burst from Harvey Barnes teed up Iheanacho to finish.
Jonny Evans and Maddison then came close to putting Rodgers’s men in front.
But just when both sides seemed to be preparing for extra-time, Leicester were hit with a sucker punch when Elmohamady’s cross was volleyed into the bottom corner by his compatriot.
Trezeguet had to be hauled from the field by Villa security personnel after he was mobbed in a pitch invasion after the final whistle as the home fans celebrated wildly.