Newcastle beat Man City 1-0
Knocked them out of EFL Cup
Guardiola says he’s happy with treble
WHAT HAPPENED? City’s hopes of winning four major trophies were dashed after Alexander Isak scored within 10 minutes in the second half of the third round Carabao Cup fixture at St. James’ Park on Wednesday. Guardiola made seven changes to the line-up from the weekend victory over Nottingham Forest and even left prolific scorer Erling Haaland on the bench.
The Spanish manager’s experimental starting XI failed to produce the goods despite bossing the game in the first-half. Nonetheless, Guardiola was impressed with how his team played and has no qualms about missing out on a potential quadruple.
WHAT THEY SAID: “You think the target was the quadruple? We are more than happy with the treble,” he told Sky Sports after the matc
He added: “We played an incredible game. They increased after the break and were more aggressive. They scored a goal. Last season we were out against Southampton and not there but tonight we were. Congratulations to Newcastle.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE: Guardiola handed a rare start to Kalvin Phillips but the midfielder failed to make the most of the opportunity as he had an average outing against the Magpies. However, the tactician praised the midfielder while assessing his performance and also hailed Oscar Bobb
“Very good. It was really, really good,” he said of Phillips. “We will see. Go home and rest and we see [for next few games].
“I leave comfortable with how we played, no injuries and minutes for Mateo [Kovacic] and Jack [Grealish],” he added, before saying of Bobb: “Brilliant performance. It was perfect.”
WHAT NEXT? City will return to action against Wolves on Saturday in a Premier League fixture at the Molineux.
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