City beats Leicester in shootout to reach League Cup semis

LONDON — Manchester City kept alive its hopes of a quadruple as it beat Leicester 4-3 on penalties to reach the semifinals of the English League Cup on Tuesday.

Arsenal is also through after beating West Ham 1-0.

City goalkeeper Claudio Bravo saved Riyad Mahrez’s spot kick for the decisive moment following a 1-1 draw after regulation and extra time.

Jamie Vardy also missed in the shootout for Leicester.

Bernado Silva’s first-half goal looked to have given the visitors the win, but Vardy scored a stoppage-time penalty to take it beyond 90 minutes.

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City can still take a clean sweep of trophies this term with Guardiola’s side 11 points clear at the top of the Premier League and in the knockout stages of the Champions League.

But Guardiola downplayed the chance of a quadruple.

“That is not going to happen. Of course not,” he said.

“Come on, that isn’t real. What we’re living isn’t real. The situation of winning 16 or 17 games in a row in the league and qualifying for the Champions League before we finished the group stage, and now we’re here playing with a lot of young players. That is not normal.

“In football you drop points and you lose competitions. I am not thinking about how many titles, I am thinking about the next game.”

Kelechi Iheanacho, who moved from City to Leicester for 25 million pounds in the summer, struggled to make an impact before he helped his old club to a 26th-minute opener.

Iheanacho allowed Yaya Toure to take the ball, Gundogan strode forward to find Silva and the winger prodded the ball under the onrushing Ben Hamer.

Leicester rattled City and eventually equalized in the seventh of eight minutes of stoppage time when Kyle Walker tangled with Demarai Gray in the area and Vardy buried the penalty.

Both sides had chances in extra time before the shootout, where Christian Fuchs, Harry Maguire and Vicente Iborra scored for Leicester while Ilkay Gundogan, Yaya Toure, Lukas Nmecha and Gabriel Jesus netted for City.

But, at 4-3, Vardy’s penalty hit the post and Bravo dived to his left to deny Mahrez.

Elsewhere, Danny Welbeck scored the only goal of a forgettable game as Arsenal booked a place in the semifinals for the first time in six years.

Arsenal and West Ham shared a goalless draw in their Premier League meeting at the London Stadium last week.

It was Welbeck’s first goal since his double against Bournemouth on Sept. 9. He bundled home from close range after Mathieu Debuchy headed Francis Coquelin’s perfect pass across goal to find the England international.

The Associated Press