Arsenal, Manchester City light up Wembley stadium in Carabao Final
By Tanko Bauka
Manchester City are into the Final of the Carabao Cup and they are going to do battle with Arsenal to see who carts away the trophy in a showdown at Wembley Stadium later next month, to be precise 22 March- 2026.
Manchester City reached the final in grand style as they dispatched their opponents Newcastle United on a 5-1 aggregate to book a date with history at Wembley.
Pep Guardiola and his boys went into the second leg at Etihad Stadium having a two-goal advantage after winning the first leg played at Saint James’ Park and Newcastle United had a very daunting task of overturning a two-goal deficit.
Eddie Howe knew the task before him at Etihad Stadium was like a camel going through the a needle and they were overpowered by their host that hardly lost at home this season.
Manchester City did not waste much time to open scoring through Omar Marmoush in the 7th minute and later scored the second in the 29th minute before Tijjani Reijnders completed the rout with a strike in the 32nd minute.
Newcastle United managed to rally after the break and pulled one back through substitute Anthony Elanga as they bowed out with a 5-1 defeat on Aggregate.
Manchester City face off with Arsenal which had earlier booked their passage to the final beating Chelsea 4-2 on aggregate and the final is slated for 22nd March, 2026. But both teams can now shift their attention back to the League which Arsenal are still ahead with a gap of six points.
Newcastle United have Qarabag to navigate their way into the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League and a fourth-round encounter with Aston Villa in the FA Cup to see if they can qualify for yet another final coming up at Wembley Stadium.
Pep Guardiola after qualifying for the final is now pushing for the English Football Authority to allow Marc Guehi to feature in the final match as the player was not registered for the semi-finals and did not take part in the two-leg encounter due to his late arrivals to the Etihad.
Manchester City’s defence has been leaking goals recently and Manchester City immediately went for the Crystal Palace Captain whose coming to the Etihad has blocked some of the lockages and Manchester City are becoming solid at the back once again but it is left to be seen whether the football authority would approve Pep Guardiola’s request.
Time shall tell.
