- Man City wins sixth League Cup
- Chelsea fails to put shot on target
- Kepa refuses to sub off before PKs
After 120 minutes of scoreless play, the League Cup Final between Chelsea and Manchester City went down to penalty kicks.
A series of penalties had chaos embedded in them due to a bust-up between Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri and goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga. The latter refused to sub out of the match in extra time.
Raheem Sterling’s penalty ultimately clinched Manchester City’s sixth League Cup.
[ MORE: Lineups, play-by-play, box score ]
Crazy scenes at Wembley!
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) February 24, 2019
Maurizio Sarri tried to bring on Caballero for Kepa Arrizabalaga, who simply refused to leave the field. pic.twitter.com/PI3E7rWqE0
The start was tame, save a Sergio Aguero shot that was stopped by Kepa Arrizabalaga but headed wide of the goal.
The play lived in Chelsea’s end, but the Blues dealt well with the danger en route to a pair of late free kicks. Nicolas Otamendi nearly turned one inside his own goal, and a corner on the last breath of the half was blocked by Oleksandr Zinchenko.
[ MORE: Man Utd-Liverpool recap | 3 Things from OT ]9 - Excluding Community Shield matches, Chelsea and Manchester City have only met in the final of a competition once before – the 1985-86 Full Members Cup final at Wembley, a 5-4 victory for Chelsea, which remains the highest scoring final in Wembley history. Extravagant. pic.twitter.com/PbOLyibYdu
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 24, 2019
Eden Hazard earned a breakaway early in the second half only to be caught and tackled by Otamendi.
Aguero had the ball in the goal but was offside in the 56th.
Hazard blazed down the left wing again in the 66th minute, meeting a Willian and long ball and cooking Vincent Kompany before cutting back for N’Golo Kante. The Frenchman flew his chance over the goal.
Chelsea kept coming. Willian set up Ross Barkley for a curling effort with a bit too much loft to threaten Ederson.
Antonio Rudiger was fortunate to see yellow after a pair of fouls helped Man City to a 73rd minute free kick, the latter a scissoring tackle of the ball.
Hazard cued up Pedro for a prime 76th minute chance, but the Spaniard chose to pass rather than shoot and Zinchenko cut it out.
Ederson stopped a whipped Willian free kick in stoppage time, and Chelsea had a corner kick to avoid extra time. City handled it well enough.
Extra time was tame into the second frame, when Sterling danced down the end line and Chelsea defended desperately to force just a corner kick.
A sloppy sequence in the 117th minute allowed Aguero a shot from 20 yard that Arrizabalaga dove to control.
Then, with penalty kicks looming and Arrizabalaga twice down injured, Maurizio Sarri went apopletic when the keeper refused to come off for Wily Caballero. The sub board was up, but Arrizabalaga wouldn’t leave!
To kicks.
Jorginho’s tame first effort was saved by Ederson. The next shots were goals.
Arrizabalaga then guessed correctly on Sergio Aguero, but the Argentine’s shot went through his gloves. After Emerson finished for Chelsea, Arrizabalaga saved Leroy Sane’s hit.
Then David Luiz hammered the goal post.
