Tag Archives: Aymeric Laporte

The 2021 League Cup Final

Pep Guardiola’s team won the League Cup for a record-equalling fourth time in succession with a deserved victory over Tottenham on this day (25 April) in 2021. The London club had dismissed manager Jose Mourinho earlier that week, placing coach Ryan Mason in charge for this final. At 29 Mason became the youngest man to be in charge for a League Cup final.

City were the dominant team for most of the game, but the game’s only goal didn’t arrive until eight minutes from time. Aymeric Laporte rose to head home Kevin De Bruyne’s free kick.

After the final Pep Guardiola told the BBC: ‘That is what these players give for the future generations of this club. It is not winning [just] one title. This team in the last decade was the team in England – since Roberto Mancini won the Premier League, this team wins a lot of times in England. It’s nice, four Carabao Cups in a row, it means consistency in the team to be there. We beat Arsenal and Manchester United on the way so we can say we deserved to win this competition. The way we played was fantastic and it’s nice when you win a title. The most impressive thing is in the last 33 games we won 30.’

The victory meant City were now level with Liverpool on eight League Cup final wins and no team had bettered that success. Similarly no manager had won the competition more than Pep Guardiola.

In this Covid-hit season there was some positive news for fans as a limited number were allowed to attend the final wearing face masks. Stewards were told to actively look for fans taking them off and frequently they went into the crowd to ask fans to re-mask otherwise they’d face expulsion. The final attendance of 7,773 included around 2,000 from each club and a number of locally based residents. At the end those from Manchester and the neutrals present stayed to watch the Blues lift their eighth League Cup.

Match Stats

25 April 2021

Manchester City 1 (Laporte) Tottenham Hotspur 0

Attendance 7,773 (Covid restrictions)

You can read my comments about attending the final here:

Covid and the 2021 League Cup Final

Gundogan Record

On 3 June 2023 Ilkay Gundogan City secured his place in national football history with the quickest goal in a FA Cup final. It was a stunning volley after only 12 seconds. That day Gundogan scored two and helped City to 2-1 FA Cup final victory over Manchester United.

As well as the speed of the first goal, Gundogan’s goals gave him another MCFC record. Dave Masey, who has been collecting stats and historical information on Manchester City for years contacted me to tell me about one of his spreadsheets which holds details of City scorers in trophy winning games.

His records capture those who have scored in major cup finals, but besides Cup Finals he also records other trophy-winning games. These include the deciding League games from 1937 onwards against Sheffield Wednesday (1937), Newcastle, QPR, West Ham, Brighton and Villa (2022), but nothing from three recent title successes where the Blues clinched the title when they were not playing. Got that? Good, now….

Dave tells me that the FA Cup success saw Gundogan move to the top of the list with 5 goals, overtaking Neil Young and Sergio Aguero. So he has scored more goals in trophy-winning games than any other Blue.

The list of scorers in trophy winning games reads:

1904Meredith
1934/7Tilson (3), Brook (2), Doherty
1956Hayes, Dyson, Johnstone
1968/70Young (4), Lee (2), Summerbee, Doyle, Pardoe
1976P Barnes, Tueart
2011-(former)Aguero (4), Y Toure (2), Nasri (2), Kompany (2), D Silva (2),Jesus (2), Sterling (2), Dzeko, Zabaleta, Navas, Fernandinho
2016-(current)Gundogan (5),  Laporte (2), Rodri (2), Mahrez, De Bruyne

Dave also tells me that in the three seasons where somebody else’s defeat clinched the title for City, the scorers in the club’s last game before the title confirmation were:

Gundogan (3), Sterling (2), Jesus, Haaland.

As Dave says, Ilkay gets a remarkable number of important goals, particularly for somebody who is ‘just’ a 1 goal in 5/6 games player (63 in 357 for City by June 2025).

Brighton 1 Manchester City 4

Manchester City became Premier League champions on this day (12 May) in 2019 when they defeated Brighton 4-1 after going behind. It became a day of great celebration after a nervy opening when Brighton took a 27th minute lead. That goal had meant Liverpool were top of the table in the ‘live’ table on TV and websites. Fortunately 83 seconds later Aguero made it 1-1.

City’s other scorers were Laporte, Mahrez and Gundogan. Highlights can be seen here:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/match-highlights/2019/may/brighton-v-manchester-city-match-highlights-extended

Olympique Lyonnais 2 Manchester City 2

Today (27 November) in 2018 Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City drew 2-2 at Lyon to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League. Pep said at the time that Lyon were ‘one of the toughest teams’ City had ever faced in the competition. You can watch highlights here:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/match-highlights/2018/november/lyon-manchester-city-highlights-champions-league-video

Maxwel Cornet gave the home side an early second-half lead before City defender Aymeric Laporte levelled with a header. Cornet made it 2-1 after 81 minutes but then Sergio Aguero reacted quickest to flick in a header two minutes later.

In his post match interviews Pep commented: ‘We are so delighted and so happy. It is a big compliment for the team. We played one of toughest teams we’ve ever faced. They are physical, strong, they counter-attack incredible. We reacted after 1-0 and 2-1 and we are in the final stages. This was our target.’

He added: ‘Now we must try to get a point to finish first in the group stage, but it is so important to go through.’

City had qualified for the last 16 with one game to spare.

More Gundogan Records

For many, many years Dave Masey has been collecting stats and historical information on Manchester City. Like me he was a member of the Association of Football Statisticians and he has helped me often over the years. Following Saturday’s FA Cup final he got in touch with me to tell me about one of his spreadsheets which holds details of City scorers in trophy winning games.

His records capture those who have scored in major cup finals, but besides Cup Finals he also records other trophy-winning games. These include the deciding League games from 1937 onwards against Sheffield Wednesday (1937), Newcastle, QPR, West Ham, Brighton and Villa (2022), but nothing from three recent title successes where the Blues clinched the title when they were not playing. Got that? Good, now….

Dave tells me that Gundogan is now at the top of the list with 5 goals, overtaking Neil Young and Sergio Aguero. So he has scored more goals in trophy-winning games than any other Blue.

The list of scorers in trophy winning games reads:

1904Meredith
1934/7Tilson (3), Brook (2), Doherty
1956Hayes, Dyson, Johnstone
1968/70Young (4), Lee (2), Summerbee, Doyle, Pardoe
1976P Barnes, Tueart
2011-(former)Aguero (4), Y Toure (2), Nasri (2), Kompany (2), D Silva (2),Jesus (2), Sterling (2), Dzeko, Zabaleta, Navas, Fernandinho
2016-(current)Gundogan (5),  Laporte (2), Rodri (2), Mahrez, De Bruyne

Dave also tells me that in the three seasons where somebody else’s defeat clinched the title for City, the scorers in the club’s last game before the title confirmation were:

Gundogan (3), Sterling (2), Jesus, Haaland.

As Dave says, Ilkay gets a remarkable number of important goals, particularly for somebody who is ‘just’ a 1 goal in 5 games player (60 in 303 for City). Certainly this season he has played a true leader’s role and, looking at his place in this table, he is clearly a man for all trophy-winning seasons.

Thanks, as always to Dave, for this information.

Goalscoring Nationalities

Prior to this weekend’s game with Spurs, Manchester City have had players from 41 different nations score for the Blues in the Premier League. Can you remember them all? The following 1200 word article tells the story…

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