Bravo City
Goalkeeper denies Mahrez as Foxes blow shoot-out chance
At the end of the victorious penalty shoot-out, Pep Guardiola punched the air and hugged his players like a man who had waited all his gilded career as player and coach to reach the promised land that they call the Carabao Cup semi-finals.
Certainly, no one could accuse the Manchester City manager of not taking seriously the fourth competition of elite football, definitively below Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup but still potentially part of what would be an unprecedented quadruple in 2018.
Of course, it is a long road ahead for Manchester City, with much sterner tests than the Leicester City second string they originally faced. For now they are unbeaten in domestic competition in 27 domestic games going back to the FA Cup semi-final defeat to Arsenal last season and although winning the quadruple was described as an “unreal” prospect by Guardiola himself, they have a certain momentum behind them.
In the end there were misses in the shoot-out from substitutes Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez, taking consecutive spot-kicks at the end of the new ABBA format, the former hitting the post and then Claudio Bravo saving from the Algerian. But it should never have reached that point with referee Bobby Madley making an extraordinary decision to give Leicester a penalty in the fifth minute of the eight added on at the end of the regulation 90 minutes with the away team leading by a single goal.
That was Madley’s decision to award a penalty against Kyle Walker, on as a second-half substitute, for what the referee considered was a foul on Demarai Gray, also a substitute, when it looked like the former simply made good contact with the ball.
Madley pointed to the spot and Vardy took the tie into extra-time with an equaliser from what turned out to be only his first penalty of the night.
Later Guardiola would praise the reaction of his players, although they railed at Madley after the decision and had to be pulled away at full-time by their manager. It was one of those calls that will be corrected next season by the video assistants but for now Madley will have to live with it.
In extra-time he had to decide whether to give Walker a penalty when he was challenged by Harry Maguire but instead chose to book the former for simulation, a fate that also befell Ilkay Gundogan. Guardiola dismissed suggestions that his team could do the quadruple when asked later, offering the theory that he is already struggling with injuries. Eliaquim Mangala smashed his nose against the back of Vardy’s head and had to go off, one of only two players who started this game and also the match against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.
Asked about the quadruple, Guardiola said simply, “that is not going to happen”. “Of course not,” he said, “come on that’s unreal”. Quite probably but he seems able to win ties even without the full daunting assortment of superstars. Bernardo Silva scored his side’s goal and for long periods he and Gundogan were excellent in an away side with many young players trusted by Guardiola to play when the pressure was on.
As well as Guardiola starting with academy graduates Phil Foden, Brahim Diaz, and Tosin Adarabioyo there were debuts for Lukas Nmecha and Tom Dele-bashiru, on as second-half substitutes when the pressure was on.
His opposite number Claude Puel picked a weakened team, and trailing to Bernardo’s first half goal, brought on Vardy, Mahrez and Gray in the second half to get back in the tie. The impact of the three substitutes was telling and although it was Vardy and Mahrez who later failed to score penalties in the shoot-out, they effected a change in the team that would have been beneficial from the start.
In the first half Gundogan was magnificent at times, making the run after 26 minutes and then the pass for Bernardo’s goal, going past the Austrian defender Aleksandar Dragovic with a slight sway of the shoulders and brief change of angle. Bernardo toed the ball through the legs of Ben Hamer, the Leices-
ter goalkeeper, and that was the least they deserved at that point.
Puel had made seven changes to his Leicester team, a bold move given that this was a quarter-final and his opposition were facing a much less intimidating version of Guardiola’s side. Puel picked the former City striker Kelechi Iheanacho, booked in the first half for a lunge at Bravo and later substituted without taking his chance.
Dominating the early stages with Bernardo, Gundogan would later be booked for diving, an unfortunate aspect of his game but one he seemed fatally tempted by when attempting to beat a second Leicester man on the edge of the area.
When Guardiola lost Mangala with his bleed, Danilo switched to centre-back alongside Adarabioyo and Walker came on at right-back to concede the penalty that Vardy scored from. In extra-time it became gloriously open but there was no breakthrough.
The first seven penalties were finished with supreme confidence: Christian Fuchs, Gundogan, Yaya Toure, Harry Maguire, Vicente Iborra, Nmecha and Gabriel Jesus all scoring.
When Vardy hit the post, Mahrez had to score to keep Leicester in it but after another evening of uncertainty on his part, Bravo was up to the task of saving.