Manchester City hoists League Cup
Manchester City completed part one of a possible treble Sunday, winning the League Cup final in style with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Arsenal in London.
It was the first major English trophy for Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola in his second season at the helm. His counterpart, Arsene Wenger, has not won the League Cup since he became Arsenal’s manager in 1996, and the stinging defeat at Wembley Stadium puts his position at the club under further pressure.
City looked like a completely different team from the start of the week, when it crashed out of the FA Cup in a 1-0 loss to Wigan last Monday that ended its hopes for a quadruple. City still has a chance to win the Champions League and the English Premier League, in which its lead at the top of the table was cut to 13 points after a 2-1 win by Manchester United over Chelsea.
Guardiola viewed the trophy as a springboard for future team success, rather than focusing on it as a personal achievement.
“It’s important to win titles because maybe it will help us to win the next games in the Premier League, and win the league,” he said. City faces Arsenal next in the league Thursday.
United regained second place in the EPL with its result. Chelsea dropped to fifth place, two points behind Totttenham, which got a 1-0 win at Crystal Palace, thanks to Harry Kane’s header from a corner in the 88th minute.
Neymar went off on a stretcher after twisting his right ankle late in first-place Paris SaintGermain’s 3-0 victory against Marseille in Ligue 1 play. The Brazil striker was taken off the pitch with 10 minutes remaining, after going in for a challenge on Marseille defender Bouna Sarr.
PSG coach Unai Emery is hopeful Neymar will recover in time for the Champions League game against Real Madrid on March 6. PSG trails 3-1 from the first leg in the last 16.
“The first tests revealed a twist. We will do further tests,” Emery said.
Atlético Madrid routed host Sevilla 5-2 with a hat trick by Antoine Griezmann to move to seven points behind first-place Barcelona in Spain’s La Liga standings. Third-place Real Madrid, which defeated Alaves 4-0 on Saturday, is seven points behind Atlético. College baseball: No. 9 Stanford extended its season-opening winning streak to eight games as it completed a fourgame sweep of Rice (3-5) with a 2-0 victory at Sunken Diamond. Winner Jacob Palisch allowed one hit and struck out seven in 32⁄3 innings of relief.
Matt Ladrech limited Cal State Bakersfield (2-6) to one earned run in seven innings as Cal (5-2) completed a four-game sweep at Evans Diamond with a 13-2 romp. Jonah Davis had three of the Bears’ 15 hits and drove in three runs. Tennis: Frances Tiafoe won the Delray Beach Open in Florida for his first ATP Tour title. At 20, Tiafoe is the youngest American to win a title since Andy Roddick at 19 in 2002 in Houston.
Tiafoe, ranked 91st, is the first wild-card recipient to win the title in its 26-year history. He had consecutive aces on the final two points for a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Peter Gojowczyk of Germany.
Elsewhere, Karen Khachanov secured the second ATP title of his career after beating Lucas Pouille 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 in the Open 13 final in Marseille, France . ... Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman beat Spain’s Fernando Verdasco 6-2, 6-4 to win the Rio Open in Rio de Janeiro for his second career title.