Carabao Cup: Manchester United 0 – 2 Manchester City

Manchester United suffered another semi-final heartbreak under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as Manchester City won the Carabao Cup semi-final 2-0 at Old Trafford on Wednesday night.

After the Premier League stalemate in the Manchester derby in December, this was a different animal entirely with a place at Wembley up for grabs. The stakes were high and so was the entertainment.

Three goals were disallowed in the first 24 minutes for offside, with United the victims of one of them. But hopes of a Carabao Cup final on April 25 against Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham were wrecked by two second-half goals from Pep Guardiola’s team.

City went ahead with a John Stones goal in the 50th minute and Fernandinho clinched it for the Blues in the 83rd minute to make it four consecutive last-four disappointments for the Reds and Ole.

City become just the second team in the history of the League Cup to reach four consecutive finals, after Liverpool, who did so between 1981 and 1984. And They are set to face Spurs at Wembley Stadium on Sunday 25 April, following the EFL’s decision in December to delay the final in the hope more fans will be able to attend.

Post-Match Reactions:

United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was frustrated with the way his team conceded the two goals to City during the Manchester derby defeat in the Carabao Cup semi-final.

“City can score many great goals, and you can accept that, but when you concede from two set-plays, simple ones that we should have cleared, we are very disappointed. It is just not good enough in those moments. We would have liked to have defended that first free-kick better. That is a poor goal to give away, I have to say. It is not one to analyse on telly here. It was very, very disappointing. We didn’t [do enough]. Clearly, we didn’t. We didn’t create enough big chances ourselves, they didn’t create too many big ones either, but we just didn’t have the extra finesse that we have had in the games lately, in the league, in those tight games that we won. We weren’t good enough today and when you concede two set-plays, it is very disappointing.”

The City manager was quick to praise the 23-year-old and the role of football director Txiki Begiristain in helping secure the deal which brought him to the Etihad from Benfica last September.

“Ruben lives with football 24 hours and he is giving us something special,” declared the City boss.

“Congrats to Txiki and the club for bringing this player here because he will be outstanding for many years to come.”

The boss was also full of praise for another commanding display from Dias’ centre half partner John Stones, who capped his own excellent display by scoring the all-important opener.

“He came back and he make another outstanding performance – but the most important thing is he can do something he hasn’t been able to do – play four, five games in a row.

“This is important. He has to handle Rashford, who is dangerous and clever, and the quality of his passes to Joao were outstanding.

“All the team, Fernandinho, our captain, what performance again. Outstanding. All the players – Gundogan, Raheem, Phil…all the team.

“All credit (to John). Football is a long career – it is up and down, sometimes bad moments. We can help him but when someone plays like this, its credit to him. Hopefully he can continue in this way.”