Pep Guardiola watched as his Manchester City team progressed to the 2026 Carabao Cup final as they defeated Newcastle United.
Leading 2-0 in the first leg at St James’ Park, Man City won 3-1 at home on Wednesday evening, making the scoreline 5-1 on aggregate.
The key to this two-legged semi-final victory was Antoine Semenyo.
Prior to this season, the talented striker would not have been able to play in this semi-final, but ahead of this league season the rules were changed to help the likes of Pep Guardiola and Manchester City.
Semenyo should (should have!) still been in the cup, having already played for Bournemouth in the league this season. However, the rule change means that the rich and powerful clubs can now buy elite players mid-season and take them to the final stages of the Carabao Cup.
Besides the fact that Manchester City are going the proverbial way with everything else, especially the fact that no announcement has been made about the 115 Premier League charges after years of waiting, Pep Guardiola has now shown absolute justice with his post-match comments following the win over Newcastle United.
Manchester City signed Marc Guehi after the Carabao Cup deadline, so unlike Semenyo he couldn’t/couldn’t participate in the second leg of the semi-final, nor the final, as he joined Man City after the first leg of the semi-final.
Pep Guardiola has spoken out about the massive injustice of this and demanded the rules be changed now to allow Manchester City to play Marc Guehi in the final against Arsenal, according to the Man City boss; “Hopefully we can convince the Carabao Cup that Marc Guehi can play in this competition, in the final. Because it is difficult to understand that the club is making a big investment to sign one player, he belongs to us.” 1770251751 and I don’t understand why he can’t play in the final.”
You have to laugh, the injustice of it all…
Pep Guardiola wants his club to write an official letter of complaint: “Hopefully we will make a letter and hopefully the Carabao Cup will understand. Once you buy a player for a lot of money and he can’t play because of a rule… I don’t understand why. Hopefully they can change it and he can play.”
Yes, poor Manchester City, desperate for a helping hand because they’ve been going through such a tough time.
Pep Guardiola speaks about Wednesday’s match: “With Newcastle United you can never fully control them. They had a one-on-one with James Trafford and James was incredible, especially in the first half. I know the rhythm of the players and we saw that. Newcastle United are a Champions League team with top players. It was an incredibly intense game in all departments, but the boys were really good.”
To top it all off, the Manchester City boss also called out the injustice of having to play the final at Wembley: “In March we go to Wembley again… We travel to London again, Arsenal will be waiting for us there. They never travel north for the final but I’m very happy to be back… Five draws in ten years is a big milestone.”
Considering how few Manchester City fans would bother to come to the semi-final in Manchester, you wonder how many will be going to the final in six weeks’ time?
Manchester City 3 Newcastle 1 – Wednesday 4 February 2026 8:00 PM
Match statistics
Goals:
Newcastle United:
The garden
Man’s City:
Marmoush 7, 29 Reijnders 32
Possess was Newcastle 37% Manchester City 63%
Total shots were Newcastle 12 Man City 18
Shots on target were Newcastle 5 Man City 8
Corners were Newcastle 4 Man City 5
Touches in the opposition box Newcastle 14 Man City 34
Newcastle team vs Man City:
Ramsdale, Trippier (Osula 76), Thiaw, Botman, Burn, Hall (Jacob Murphy 46), Tonali, Ramsey, Willock (Elanga 46), Gordon (Barnes 44), Woltemade (Wissa 46)
subtitles:
Pope, Alex Murphy, Neave, Shahar
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