![\"LONDON,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/00241952-614.jpg\"\/)
\nViktor Gyokeres of Arsenal goes down under Rodri’s challenge<\/p>\n
Nico O’Reilly scored twice in five stunning second-half minutes to fire Manchester City to victory in the Carabao Cup final and derail Arsenal\u2019s quadruple bid.<\/p>\n
Stand-in Arsenal goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga gifted City their first when he fumbled Rayan Cherki\u2019s cross on the hour mark, with O\u2019Reilly on hand to head home from close range.<\/p>\n
A rampant City then doubled their advantage just four minutes later after O\u2019Reilly converted Matheus Nunes\u2019 cross to send Pep Guardiola dancing along the touchline.<\/p>\n
Riccardo Calafiori hit a post and Gabriel Jesus struck the crossbar as Arsenal went in search of a response, but City saw out the victory as Guardiola landed the 19th trophy of his remarkable 10-season City tenure.<\/p>\n
Mikel Arteta\u2019s Arsenal headed into Sunday\u2019s final hoping to finish the season with an unprecedented four trophies, as well as ending their six-year wait for silverware.<\/p>\n
\nViktor Gyokeres of Arsenal goes down under Rodri’s challenge<\/p>\n
But Sunday\u2019s damaging defeat at Wembley will do little to ease their tag as the ‘nearly men\u2019 and also raise significant questions over the remainder of their campaign.<\/p>\n
City are nine points behind Arsenal in the race for the Premier League title but they have a game in hand on Arteta\u2019s side, who also have to travel to the Etihad Stadium next month.<\/p>\n
Arteta will have been intent on silencing the doubters to claim just the second trophy of his tenure and his first in nearly six years.<\/p>\n
But the Spaniard was served a sobering lesson by his one-time mentor Guardiola.<\/p>\n
Both Arteta and Guardiola elected to place faith in their back-up goalkeepers, but while James Trafford produced a fine triple save, first from Kai Havertz and then two follow-up efforts from Bukayo Saka, after just seven minutes, Kepa would end up taking centre stage for all the wrong reasons.<\/p>\n
A combative, cagey and unedifying opening half came to an end with City failing to muster a single shot on target.<\/p>\n
Their best chance landed on the stroke of half-time when Erling Haaland beat both Piero Hincapie and Ben White at the far post to Antoine Semenyo’s cross, but his uncontrolled header sailed over.<\/p>\n
![\"LONDON,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/00241955-614.jpg\"\/)
\nBernardo Silva lifts the cup for City<\/p>\n
However, City were a side rejuvenated after half-time and the first warning sign arrived for Arsenal when Kepa desperately misjudged Nunes\u2019 cross-field ball.<\/p>\n
The former Chelsea man was caught in a wrestling match with Jeremy Doku outside of his area. Doku had the ball, but referee Peter Bankes elected against playing any advantage to caution Kepa and award City a free-kick. A let-off for Kepa, but City had begun the second period with serious intent.<\/p>\n
Arsenal\u2019s defence had held firm, but they were on the ropes and City landed what would prove the knockout blow on the hour mark.<\/p>\n
Kepa, who has not played in the Premier League at all this season, dropped Cherki\u2019s dinked cross and O\u2019Reilly headed in from on the line.<\/p>\n
Only four later O\u2019Reilly struck again, this time with a header that Kepa could do nothing about.<\/p>\n
City were elated, Arsenal deflated, and only a miraculous comeback would save the north Londoners.<\/p>\n
Substitute Calafiori clipped the bottom of Trafford\u2019s post from long-range and Jesus\u2019 looping header clipped the crossbar, but the majority of the Arsenal fans had long since departed when the final whistle blew as City saw out a well-deserved win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nico O’Reilly scored twice in five stunning second-half minutes to fire Manchester City to victory in the Carabao…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-359923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}