Manchester City’s stellar season gathered yet more momentum as the runaway Premier League leaders reached the League Cup semi-finals with a penalty shootout victory at Leicester City after a 1-1 draw following extra time on Tuesday.
Pep Guardiola’s City, even with a second-string team, maintained their 21-match unbeaten record in domestic matches this season, thanks once again in this competition to their reserve goalkeeper Claudio Bravo.
The visitors looked to have booked a semi-final place with a first-half Bernardo Silva goal until Leicester were awarded a soft looking penalty seven minutes into stoppage time which Jamie Vardy converted, says a Reuters report.
But after extra time produced no further goals, Bravo, their hero with two saves in a penalty shootout win over Wolverhampton Wanderers in the previous round, again delivered.
With City leading 4-3 in the shootout, Leicester’s two big guns, second-half substitutes Vardy and Riyad Mahrez, who both helped change the game’s momentum, surprisingly misfired.
Vardy’s spot kick clipped the outside of the right-hand post before Mahrez’s poor effort was saved by Chilean Bravo to clinch a City victory that utterly delighted Guardiola.
“I‘m so happy,” the Spaniard told Sky Sports after he had bounced on to the King Power Stadium pitch to congratulate his mixed bag of promising starlets and international heavyweights.
