League Cup secured for treble-chasing Man City

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LONDON, April 26, (AP): Part one of Manchester City’s treble chase has been ticked off. Aymeric Laporte headed in Kevin De Bruyne’s free kick in the 82nd minute to give City a 1-0 victory over Tottenham that clinched the League Cup for a fourth successive season. City dominated the final, with 21 attempts on goal to Tottenham’s two in a victory that showed the depth of Pep Guardiola’s squad. It was a good day all round for City after Manchester United’s 0-0 draw with Leeds earlier in the afternoon put the leaders 10 points ahead and two wins away from reclaiming the Premier League title. City will now go into their Champions League semifinal against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday on a high. Guardiola felt the tone for a onesided contest was set early on by Raheem Sterling, who looked determined to make a point after starting just three of City’s previous 10 games.

Guardiola has now won 30 trophies in his managerial career that started at Barcelona and continued with more success at Bayern Munich. His opposing manager – Ryan Mason – was only taking charge of a game at this level for the second time after the academy coach was launched into the top job at Tottenham on Monday following Jose Mourinho’s firing. Just like when Mason was in the Tottenham team in the 2015 League Cup final against Chelsea, this was another defeat for a team without a title since the League Cup success of 2008.

There were scenes of devastation at fulltime as Son Heung-min was in tears on the field while Tottenham teammate Eric Dier had to stop a postmatch interview to compose himself. Tottenham’s season is now resting on the five remaining Premier League games, although fourth place is five points away in the pursuit of Champions League qualification. Promoted Leeds continued their exploits against the Premier League’s “Big Six” with a scoreless draw against Man United. Leeds, which previously claimed a point against Liverpool after a 2-1 win at Manchester City, stretched their unbeaten run to six games as they moved ninth and atoned for a 6-2 loss to United in the reverse fixture at Old Trafford in December. United extended their unbeaten away run to 24 league games, but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team will hope to do better against Roma in the first leg

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