My Life in League Cup Finals #3 2016

On the 28 February 2016 Manchester City beat Liverpool on penalties to win the League Cup Final, thanks to some great goalkeeping by reserve keeper Willy Caballero.

This was the third time I had seen Manchester City lift the League Cup trophy at Wembley and it was almost 40 years to the day since I had seen Mike Doyle lift the Cup. Going into the day I had not expected Caballero to be in goal and had expected even less that it would be his antics which secured the trophy.

This was a game I watched from the posh seats in the second tier having won tickets as a competition prize. On the way into the ground they were many sights to behold amongst the Liverpool supporters, a number of whom were actually wearing full replica kits.

I recall this game mainly because of the animosity between the two sets of fans which permeated the whole occasion. The Liverpool fans we encountered around the Stadium were all aggressive and there were lots of bouts of trouble between supporters.

More from Man City Square

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• My Manchester City UCL Group Stage predictions
• After Injury Guardiola is back in Etihad
• Phil Foden Scores Opener for England Against Scotland

Inside the Stadium things were not that much better. Near us a couple of Liverpool fans had bought tickets in the City end and we had to intervene to prevent them being assaulted.

The match was not that great. Fernandinho scored a fizzed daisy cutter and we thought we had the game, but Coutinho levelled with minutes to go. Extra time could not separate the sides and so it went to penalties.

So much of the pre match build up had been about the City goalkeeper. On the route to the final the City manager Manuel Pellegrini had played second choice keeper Willy Caballlero. Yet fans believed as we were facing Liverpool in a final that Joe Hart should play. Pellegrini kept faith with Caballero and he repaid him with a great performance in the penalty shoot out.

Emre Can scored the first penalty and Fernandinho missed in response. And then Caballero saved from Lucas Leiva, Phillipe Coutinho and Adam Lallana. Up stepped Yaya Toure to take the decisive penalty and we all started celebrating before the ball had even hit the back of the net.

Liverpool fans streamed out of the Stadium before the trophy had even been awarded and we never saw any of them at any point on the way home. This was a great win in a great penalty shoot out thanks to the fantastic Caballero. I had seen my third League Cup Final in 40 years. Little did I know that I would only have to wait 2 years for my next one.