Man City Clinch Carabao Cup, Pep Sets New R…

Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images

Manchester City have been crowned 2025/26 Carabao Cup champions after defeating Arsenal 2-0 in the final on Sunday evening.

Carabao Cup Final

Result: Arsenal 0-2 Manchester City

Date: 22 March 2026

Venue: Wembley Stadium

The Gunners were without the services of Jurien Timber and Eberechi Eze, as Ben White and Kai Havertz earned recalls to the starting line-up. As for City, Marc Guehi dropped out to make way for Nathan Ake in central defence.

Mikel Arteta’s charges looked lively early on and they could have gone ahead inside the opening 10 minutes but the likes of Havertz and Bukayo Saka were both denied by goalkeeper James Trafford, who started ahead of Gianluigi Donnarumma.

The Cityzens, meanwhile, enjoyed more of the possession as the first half went on, with Antoine Semenyo and Jeremy Doku causing a bit of problems down the respective flanks.

Semenyo was nearly the architect for the first goal when he carved out some space to send a cross into the box for Erling Haaland, who was unable to steer his header on target as the first half ended all square.

The deadlock was eventually broken in the 59th minute when full-back Nico O’Reilly got ahead of his marker to head home for City after Gunners goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga failed to deal with a cross into the box.

The lead was doubled in the 64th minute as O’Reilly completed his brace by latching onto a pass cross from Matheus Nunes and sending a fine header Past Kepa.

Arteta responded with a double change for the final 25 minutes as Piero Hincapie and Havertz made way for Riccardo Calafiori and Noni Madueke with the hope of getting back in the contest.

The changes were unable to make the desired effect as City saw out the clash to claim a ninth League Cup, while Guardiola becomes the first coach to win the trophy five times, one more than Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho.

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