Carabao Cup final: Man City win on penalties as Sarri loses the plot with Kepa

2019 Carabao Cup final Chelsea 0 Manchester City 0 (City win 4-3 on penalties)

Manchester City have retained the Carabao Cup after beating Chelsea 4-3 on penalties in the final at Wembley Stadium.

Chelsea went into the final as the underdogs after losing 6-0 in the recent Premier League match against City at the Etihad.

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For under-fire Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri the performance was much improved on recent results, but his authority was undermined by one of his key players, goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, who refused to be substituted in extra-time when he had cramp.

After 120 goalless minutes it meant that the winners would be decided from 12 yards out. Jorginho missed Chelsea’s first spot-kick but Arrizabalaga saved Leroy Sane’s effort to keep the west London side in touch.

However, defender David Luiz hit the post with Chelsea’s fourth penalty so when it came to the fifth spot kick it was down to Man City forward Raheem Sterling to keep his cool, which he did as he fired into the top corner.

Now that Pep Guardiola’s City have won the first silverware of the season they remain on course for an historic quadruple - the league cup, Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League.

Guardiola told Sky Sports: “Of course I’m happy. Compliments to Chelsea, they played an incredible performance. I’m happy to win back to back in this competition for the first time in the club’s history. The important thing when it comes to penalties is personality and we did it.”

How the penalty shoot-out happened

• 0-0: Jorginho (Chelsea) missed, saved by Ederson
• 0-1: Ilkay Gundogan (Man City) scored
• 1-1: Cesar Azpilicueta (Chelsea) scored
• 1-2: Sergio Aguero (Man City) scored
• 2-2: Emerson Palmieri (Chelsea) scored
• 2-2: Leroy Sane (Man City) missed, saved by Kepa Arrizabalaga
• 2-2: David Luiz (Chelsea) missed, hit the post
• 2-3: Bernardo Silva (Man City) scored
• 3-3: Eden Hazard (Chelsea) scored
• 3-4: Raheem Sterling (Man City) scored

Sarri fumes with Kepa

The main highlight of the extra 30 minutes was an extraordinary moment featuring Chelsea goalkeeper Arrizabalaga, who was suffering with cramp in the final minutes of the second-half of extra-time.

Chelsea boss Sarri wanted to bring the 24-year-old Spaniard off and replace him with former Man City keeper Willy Caballero. However, Arrizabalaga refused to be substituted and Sarri went into a rage on the sidelines and started to walk down the tunnel before returning to the dugout.

Kepa’s refusal to come off shocked TV pundits and fans on social media. The BBC’s Jermaine Jenas said: “For one of the players to really go against Sarri on such a public stage doesn’t sit well with me. The fact he went inside and was not out there with his players is one thing, but it has to be infuriating for one of your players to categorically tell you to do one and say I’m staying on this pitch.

“It happened, it’s not pretty. This is a huge blemish. It all boils down to what is going on between Sarri and his players. That does not happen - there’s a lack of respect someway along the line.”

On Sky Sports Jamie Redknapp said he felt “so sorry for Sarri” while Blues legend John Terry added: “It’s a cloud over the Chelsea performance after they played and performed so well. It will be interesting to see if Kepa plays the next game. If I was in the dressing room I would expect the manager to come in and deal with it straight away.”

Sarri: it was a misunderstanding

Sarri’s future at Chelsea was already under threat before the final and now the incident with his goalkeeper will not help speculation that he has lost the faith of some of his players.

However, when asked about the incident the Chelsea boss played it down. He said: “There was a misunderstanding because I thought the goalkeeper had cramp so was unable to carry on for penalties but that wasn’t the case.

“As I said, the keeper understood I asked for the change for the injury but he didn’t need to come off.

“I realised only afterwards when the doctor came back to the bench - I only need to talk to him afterwards to clarify the situation nothing else.”

Sack Kepa, not Sarri

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 live former Chelsea striker Chris Sutton believes goalkeeper Arrizabalaga should be sacked for his refusal to be subbed and for the lack of respect shown to his manager.

Sutton said: “Kepa should never play for Chelsea again - that should be his last performance in a Chelsea shirt. He’s a disgrace. I’ve never seen anything like it.

“If I was Sarri I would walk. You cannot be undermined. Why weren’t the players dragging Kepa off anyway? Kepa should be sacked, not Sarri.”

Reactions to the final

Vincent Kompany, Man City captain: “It is a difficult trophy to win, everyone is involved from the young guys at the start to now. Everyone is involved. I am always ready to play, I haven’t trained much but I am so happy to achieve these things with this wonderful club. I know how good Willy Caballero is on penalties, last time we won it he won it for us so I didn’t want him to come on! It didn’t happen in the end.”

Raheem Sterling, Man City forward, who scored the winning penalty: “Pep said he didn’t watch it - I just told him ‘top bins’. Chelsea played a really good game today, it was difficult to break them down but we kept on going. It’s one trophy down and now we just need to keep winning games.”

Ilkay Gundogan, Man City midfielder: “It feels great to be honest, I think to win the trophy back to back is always more difficult than winning it the first time. Chelsea played well and made it tough for us. It was such an open game. We knew that after the result a couple of weeks ago this match would be tougher and more difficult to play against them. They wanted revenge. We are just pleased to be able to win it again. It is a special feeling.”

Cesar Azpilicueta, Chelsea captain: “Obviously we knew we had to fight very hard against a very strong team and to have chances to win the trophy we got to penalties and we are very disappointed. Now we have to recover because 120 minutes was very hard and we have another tough game in midweek. First of all we had a very good effort from everyone involved, we ran a lot and we fought a lot, but maybe it is true we lacked a bit with ball but we had chances as well.”