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Carabao Cup: Man City to launch probe into crowd disorder

Manchester City said they would look into footage of the crowd disorder that marred Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup semi-final derby against Manchester United.

Both sets of supporters had to be held back by stewards and the police officers in attendance

Just 24 hours after United chief Ed Woodward’s Cheshire house was attacked by hooded thugs, more trouble erupted as a group of United fans tore up seats and hurled them towards City’s supporters.

The home fans threw them back and were also caught on video taunting their rivals over the Munich air disaster. A red smoke canister appeared to be thrown into the home section after Nemanja Matic’s first-half strike, too.
United won the match but City progressed to the final, where they will meet Aston Villa on March 1. City will look at CCTV to try and identify those supporters responsible.

A flare also appeared to have been thrown into the home section of City’s stadium

Manager Pep Guardiola said: ‘I don’t like it. I didn’t know it but if that happened it’s not nice.

‘I didn’t like what happened with Ed Woodward. This is football. I’m sure you see the United squad it’s really good. That’s not the way to do it.’

A young pitch invader also had to be ushered away towards the end by City goalkeeper Claudio Bravo and a steward after making his way on to the playing surface.

On the pitch, United inflicted City’s first Carabao Cup defeat in 17 games and 1,190 days — stretching back to a win over their rivals in October 2016.

Seats were thrown by both Manchester City and Manchester United fans inside the Etihad

But City won 3-2 on aggregate thanks to their 3-1 win in the first leg at Old Trafford earlier this month.

The holders had goals from Raheem Sterling and Sergio Aguero ruled out for offside. However, Solskjaer was unhappy over Matic’s sending-off after he was shown a second yellow card by referee Kevin Friend for a foul on Ilkay Gundogan.

‘For me, it’s a joke. Never a sending-off,’ he said. ‘It’s hard to come here and score a goal with 11 players never mind 10.

‘The first one’s not a yellow, he’s unlucky and I disagree with that decision. It’s ironic, the first time he makes a foul he gets a yellow. How many times did they foul us? How many times was Dan James fouled?
‘But that’s the ref’s decision because he was man of the match for me today.

‘It shouldn’t be like this because I’m proud of the players. We’ve come so far with these boys and they’re giving us absolutely everything.

Tempers flared at the end of the Carabao Cup semi-final between the two local rivals

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‘They’ve beaten City twice now in six weeks at their place. Even though they didn’t create too many clear cut chances they defended well which pleased me.’

Guardiola argued that City were the best team over both legs and deserve to be in the final for the third year in a row.

‘We played a top side with physicality and we created enough chances to score,’ he said. ‘They shot on target once and scored and once in the second half.

‘I was pleased with the 180 minutes, in both games we were better. I’m so satisfied with the way we’ve played.’

 

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