As many as five City Academy players featured in their win over Leicester City on Tuesday night!
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola (R) celebrates the victory with goalkeeper Claudio Bravo (Photo: AFP)
Manchester City were pushed to their limit by Leicester City in a pulsating Carabao Cup quarter-final on Tuesday night, with the Sky Blues eventually progressing via a penalty shootout and Pep Guardiola singled out the City Academy players for praise in the aftermath of their win.
“Our young players played so well,” Pep gushed as he continued, “Brahim (Diaz), Tosin (Adarabioyo) and Phil (Foden) played really well and I’m so happy.”
Remarkably, it was the second connective win for City in the Carabao Cup via a penalty shootout and Pep admitted he was happy to reach the last four of the cup competition.
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“This is the second time we have won on penalties after the win against Wolves, so to reach the semi-finals is fantastic.”
Senior players like Bernardo Silva, Ilkay Gundogan and Yaya Toure also featured alongside the youngsters as Pep fielded a team that had a blend of experience and youth.
And the Catalan manager was thrilled with the trio’s performance as he added, “There are so many things to be happy about: Bernardo Silva played an outstanding game, as did Gundogan and Yaya – everybody was really good”.
“The players today have not played too much in the last period and they’ve shown me very, very good things and it is not easy to do that when there have been lots of changes.”
Arsenal beat West Ham United 1-0 in the other quarter-final on the night and Wednesday’s quarters see Manchester United visit Bristol City and Chelsea hosting Bournemouth.
The Red Devils and the Blues are heavy favourites to progress, which would mean all four semifinalists would be heavyweights and there is a strong chance that City could be drawn alongside derby rivals United as well.
City, who are topping the Premier League with a hefty margin of 11 points, next face Bournemouth on Saturday and will look to extend their record-breaking winning streak to an incredible 17 games when the struggling Cherries come visiting.
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