Ferran Torres opens with Manchester City

Tottenham Hotspur will continue without knowing what it is to kiss the honeys of success one more season. The League Cup, their chance to redeem themselves 13 years later was taken away when a header from Aymeric Laporte sent the trophy to the insatiable record of Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City (1-0).

José Mourinho will smile from his home, fired five days before the final, while his former team fell without many honors at Wembley, where 8,000 people – a record in English football since the pandemic – attended the coronation for the fourth consecutive year of City in the League Cup, Guardiola’s fetish tournament, which is also known as the Carabao Cup for commercial reasons. It was released, therefore, Ferran Torres with his first title at Manchester City despite not playing a single minute in the final.

And it is that Tottenham died without almost showing his face. They raised the same defensive game as Chelsea did a week ago to eliminate City in the FA Cup semi-finals. But using a lot more risks behind, because Ryan Mason’s team defends much worse than Tuchel’s and has a much less dominant midfield.
That is why the chances for Guardiola’s were gushing out. SThey were able to overtake many times, with Mahrez shooting from the frontHe, with sterling boardings, even with a point-blank Foden shot that Alderweireld saved with such good luck to him that his rebound went to the wood.

The ‘Spurs’ survived almost without knowing how. They subsisted against the yoke of City, which did not even have to worry about counterattacks, since Harry Kane acted as islet above, barely accompanied by a Heung-min Son who did not come into contact with the ball throughout the game.

It was a matter of time before the goal fell, because Tottenham was satisfied from minute 1 with extra time or penalties. With the whole team behind, the set piece was the key to unravel the ‘Spurs’ wall. A corner kick by De Bruyne, already recovered from his ankle injury, headed him between two Aymeric Laporte players with five minutes remaining. Hojbjerg hung his head knowing his options were just fading
There the resistance of Mason’s men died, who had given in a few minutes before Gareth Bale to try to take advantage of his speed to the race, without success, like the rest of the team. Mason, in his second game on the bench, could not achieve the coveted title either. One more for Guardiola’s record, who has already accumulated 25 great titles and is laying the first stone for the triplet. They lack the Premier League, which will end up falling in maturity, and the always complicated Champions League.

Technical sheet of the match

1 – Manchester City: Steffen; Cancello, Laporte, Dias, Walker; Gündogan, Fernandinho (Rodri, m.84), De Bruyne (Silva, m.87); Foden, Sterling and Mahrez.
0 – Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris; Reguilón, Dier, Alderweireld, Aurier (Bergwijn, m.90); Lo Celso (Sissoko, m.67), Hojbjerg (Alli, m.84), Winks; They are, Kane and Moura (Bale, m.67).
Goals: 1-0. Laporte, m.82.
Referee: Paul Tierney admonished Laporte (m.45) and Fernandinho (m.59) by the locals and Reguilón (m.27) by the visitors.
Incidents: Match corresponding to the League Cup final played at Wembley Stadium (London) with reduced capacity (8,000 spectators).