MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Guardiola's Manchester City win League Cup, shake up books of records

Guardiola says coaching big teams makes winning easier

Spanish football manager Pep Guardiola Sunday became the first manager to win the League Cup in four consecutive seasons when Manchester City beat Tottenham Hotspurs 1-0 in the Carabao Cup final in front of 8,000 fans at Wembley.

Although limited, crowds are being allowed gradually back into English League stadiums as coronavirus restrictions are eased.

Guardiola also matched coaches Brian Clough, Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho, all of them four-time winners albeit not in a single streak. A late header by Frenchman Aymeric Laporte gave Guardiola the 25th major trophy of his coaching career, an achievement he downplayed and credited to the fact that he had always been in charge of big club teams, namely Barcelona and Bayern Munich before landing in England.

Manchester City has now won 19 of their 25 League Cup matches under Guardiola, with only Roy Evans (78.3%) posting a higher win percentage among managers in League Cup history than the Spaniard (76%).

With Sunday's win, Manchester City also secured their eighth League Cup title, the joint-most alongside Liverpool. They are the second team to win the competition in four consecutive campaigns (Liverpool, 1981-1984).

Only Arsenal (six) have lost more League Cup finals than Tottenham Hotspur (five), with Spurs now losing each of their last three finals in the competition (2008-09 v Man Utd and 2014-15 v Chelsea).