Manchester City and penalties – a marriage that will never last.
Pep Guardiola endured more shootout pain this week when Real Madrid knocked them out of the Champions League, having been on the back foot and ropes for most of the second leg of their quarter-final. That result deprived City of another trip to Wembley and the last time they were at the national stadium they were losing on penalties to Arsenal in the Community Shield.
However, as they prepare for Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final with Chelsea hoping to book one more trip to the capital history is on their side – in quite extraordinary fashion. It is five years since the remarkable shootout when Chelsea’s goalkeeper defied his manager against City and then lost the game.
That it even went to penalties was a surprise to many given how the season and month had gone. City welcomed Chelsea to the Etihad in early February 2019 and won so stonkingly (6-0) that the club had to apologise for rubbing it in after the game by blaring Chelsea’s anthem ‘One Step Beyond’ around the stadium. With 15 points between the sides in the league and the West Londoners in disarray, common consensus was that a Chelsea win would prove several steps beyond Maurizio Sarri’s team.
The intervening week was even worse for the West London club, with Chelsea losing to United in the FA Cup and the fans turning their fire on the under-pressure manager. Chants of “F*** Sarriball” were not a ringing endorsement of how things were going.
And yet, normal time passed by without a goal and with three minutes of extra time remaining most attention had turned to penalties. Sarri had seen enough of goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga struggling on through the game that he ordered Willy Caballero to come on.
Only Kepa wouldn’t come off. The Spaniard wagged his finger in the direction of the dugout and shouted, throwing an arm in the air to show his disgust at the decision as he refused to move.
Sarri was raging, pacing back and forth and shouting before later attempting to confront Kepa before the shootout, shouting: “How could you do this?” There was incredulity in the stadium and on TVs around the world as people struggled to comprehend if they had really just witnessed a player ignore his manager and the teammate waiting on the sidelines to come on for him.
It would only get worse, as Kepa let a weak penalty from Sergio Aguero squeeze under him to see City win the shootout. Caballero, the unused goalkeeper, had won the 2016 League Cup for City in a penalty shootout against Liverpool.
City’s winning skipper Vincent Kompany rubbed salt in the wound afterwards, highlighting how good he knew Caballero was at penalties and how happy the Blues were not to see the change. As for Kepa, he put it all down to a misunderstanding.
“In no moment was it my intention to disobey the boss,” he said. “It was misunderstood. I know if you see it from outside, it is not the best image. I have spoken with the boss.
“I think it was misunderstood. I understand that on television, on social media, they’re talking about this but it wasn’t my intention to go against the manager. We have spoken now, and I was only trying to say I’m fine. He thought I wasn’t fine.
“It was in tense moments, with a lot happening. I know the image it’s given, but I never intended to refuse to go off. It was only to say I was fine.”
Amazingly, Sarri managed not to go on the attack when he spoke after the game as he gave what amounted to most of a defence of his goalkeeper. As angry as he had been at the time, he wouldn’t let that show.
“I wanted Caballero on the pitch, but the goalkeeper wanted to let me know he was in condition to go to penalties. It was only a big misunderstanding,” he said. “Kepa was right, but in the wrong way – wrong in the way he conducted himself, but mentally he was right because he was able to go to penalties. He was right for his motivation, but not for the conduct.”
It cost the player a week’s wages, while the manager would not be in charge beyond the end of the season. Meanwhile, Guardiola and his players added the Premier League and the FA Cup to mean they had won all four domestic competitions in the season (as well as suffering a painful Champions League exit to Spurs).
Kepa was on the Real Madrid bench on Wednesday night, with some eagle-eyed observers claiming he had told Andriy Lunin to stay on his feet for Bernardo Silva’s penalty having been beaten in the 2019 League Cup when he dived and Silva went straight down the middle. That match came two days after Chelsea players squabbled between themselves as they all fought to take a penalty that Cole Palmer would convert against Everton.
City may not want to think about penalties any time soon, but if Chelsea are involved on Saturday the chances are it could well work out in favour of the reigning FA Cup champions.
