Pep Guardiola watched on as his Manchester City team progressed to the 2026 Carabao Cup final, as they overcame Newcastle United.
Leading 2-0 from the first leg at St James’ Park, Man City won 3-1 at home on Wednesday night to make it 5-1 on aggregate.
Key to this two legged semi-final victory was Antoine Semenyo.
Previous to this season, the talented attacker would have been unable to play in this semi-final, however, ahead of this season in the competition the rules were changed to help the likes of Pep Guardiola and Manchester City.
Semenyo would (should!) have still been cup-tied as he had already played for Bournemouth this season in the competition. However, the rule change means that now the rich and powerful clubs can buy elite players mid-season and parachute them into the closing stages of the Carabao Cup.
On top of Manchester City taking the proverbial with everything else, especially the no announcement yet on the 115 Premier League charges after years of waiting, now Pep Guardiola has shown absolute entitlement with his post-match comments after the win over Newcastle United.
Manchester City signed Marc Guehi after the Carabao Cup deadline date, so unlike Semenyo, he couldn’t/can’t take part in the semi-final second leg, nor the final, as he joining Man City after the first leg of the semi-final.
Pep Guardiola has called out about the sheer injustice of this and demanded that the rules be now changed to allow Manchester City to play Marc Guehi in the final against Arsenal, the Man City boss stating; “Hopefully we can convince the Carabao Cup that Marc Guehi can play in this competition, in the final. Because it is difficult to understand that the club makes a big investment to take one player, he belongs to us 1770271467 and I don’t understand why he cannot play in the final.”
You have to laugh, the injustice of it all…
Pep Guardiola wanting his club to write an official letter of complaint: “Hopefully we make a letter and hopefully the Carabao Cup can understand. Once you buy a player for a lot of money and he is not able to play because of a rule…I don’t understand why. Hopefully they can change it and he can play.”
Yes, poor Manchester City, desperate for a helping hand because they have had it so rough.
Pep Guardiola speaking about Wednesday’s match: “With Newcastle United, you can never control them completely. They had a one against one with James Trafford and James was unbelievable, especially in the first half. I know the rhythm the players have and we saw it. Newcastle United are a Champions League team with top class players. It was an incredibly intense game in all departments but the guys were really good.”
To top it all off, the Manchester City boss also calling out the injustice of having to play the final at Wembley: “In March we go to Wembley again… We will travel to London again, Arsenal will wait for us there. They never travel to the north for finals but I am really happy to be back…Five ties in 10 years is a big milestone.”
Well, seen as how few Manchester City fans could be bothered to turn up for this semi-final held in Manchester, you wonder how many will be up for going to the final in six weeks time?
Manchester City 3 Newcastle 1 – Wednesday 4 February 2026 8pm
Match Stats
Goals:
Newcastle United:
Elanga 62
Man City:
Marmoush 7, 29 Reijnders 32
Possession was Newcastle 37% Man City 63%
Total shots were Newcastle 12 Man City 18
Shots on target were Newcastle 5 Man City 8
Corners were Newcastle 4 Man City 5
Touches in the opposition box Newcastle 14 Man City 34
Newcastle team v Man City:
Ramsdale, Trippier (Osula 76), Thiaw, Botman, Burn, Hall (Jacob Murphy 46), Tonali, Ramsey, Willock (Elanga 46), Gordon (Barnes 44), Woltemade (Wissa 46)
Subs:
Pope, Alex Murphy, Neave, Shahar
Source link
Add Comment