Boss Guardiola hails Manchester City's dominance over English football as EPL champions beat Aston Villa 2-1 to claim third straight League Cup crown
Manchester City's players celebrate with the English League Cup after beating Aston Villa 2-1 in the final at Wembley in London on Sunday. Pic/AFP
Pep Guardiola hailed his Manchester City side's desire to leave a lasting legacy after lifting a third straight League Cup by beating Aston Villa 2-1 at Wembley on Sunday thanks to goals from Sergio Aguero and Rodrigo.
City have now won eight of the last nine trophies on offer in English football under Guardiola, who has now won 29 trophies in his managerial career. "[Since] we won the first title here against Arsenal in the League Cup we played 11 competitions and won eight. Is a lot," said Guardiola. "For this club it is not just about one title it is about showing every game we play counts and we want to win. Everybody knows we have the responsibility to fight, to try to win the titles. Eight out of 11 is something remarkable." After City sped into a 2-0 lead inside 30 minutes, Mbwana Samatta pulled a goal back for Villa, but their wait for the club's first silverware since 1996 goes on.
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Man City boss Pep Guardiola with the League Cup on Sunday
"I'm disappointed. Everyone wrote us off, but there was a lot of belief in that dressing room," said Villa boss Dean Smith. "Unfortunately you have a mountain to climb against a team like Man City when you go 2-0 behind." Guardiola made eight changes from the side that won 2-1 at Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday with Kevin De Bruyne among those left on the bench. However, it mattered little as City had the luxury of recalling Aguero, Raheem Sterling and David Silva to the starting XI, and the gulf in class showed.
Guardiola's raft of changes also handed a rare start to Phil Foden, 19, who justified his selection with a man-of-the-match performance. Rodrigo's fine pass picked out Foden to head back into the path of Aguero and the Argentine's deflected effort beat Orjan Nyland in the Villa goal to open the scoring on 20 minutes. Villa felt aggrieved at the source of City's second as Jack Grealish fired the ball off Ilkay Gundogan for what should have been a goal kick. Instead, City doubled their lead as Gundogan's corner was met with a powerful downward header from Rodrigo.
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