Chelsea v Manchester City: Final of the Carabao Cup – live! | Soccer

32 min: Chelsea likes to play a little around the city, and Fernandinho must be well placed to stop Hazard from taking a floating Jorginho ball into the box.

30 minutes: This is a yellow card earned for David Luiz, who deposits Bernardo Silva in agriculture while the man of the city moves slowly away from him near the right. Dangerous free kick here …

28 min: A shot from Aguero, which binds David Silva before passing the goal to 20 yards, slightly deflected, Kepa dives and holds.

So, in all fairness, everything goes as Sarri probably hoped.

26 min: But now, Chelsea has an attack, skillfully sweeping the field, and gets a free kick halfway through the middle of City, a little to the right. This is their first real chance to press. Willian walks towards the back of the stick, Pedro lowers his head but no one is about to hang on to it.

25 min: If you were Hazard, you'd probably rather be in Madrid than run like used paper.

22 min: The best moment of action so far – Bernardo Silva throws a beautiful ball from right to left above Azpilicueta and Aguero, inside the surface, chest down and sits before throwing himself from an awkward angle.

21 min: He does not leave much. But it's the only city that attacks. We have not seen the danger yet!

20 min: Maybe the rear possession will die and football will evolve to the point where in five years everyone plays percentage football and the real heroes are a miniature Dave Bassetts generation. While we think about it, Rudiger defends himself against Bernardo Silva's dangerous ball and it's another City corner.

18 min: The pressure of the city is quite strong, but Luiz clears two centers of the left. Chelsea stays seated until City gets 15 yards in half.

17 min: Kepa looks dubious with the ball at his feet up to now, which does not help the previous point.

16 min: The problem is that Chelsea * insists * to pass the ball through the back, even if there is no option to progress and City continues to press aggressively. So, the ball is given every time. I know that's the way everyone has to play now, but it's so often frayed and useless. You're probably not going to score the perfect goal from there, so why not do it like and when?

13 min: Laporte feeds David Silva in a pretty little pocket of space but his touch dropping it in an unusual way. It's a pretty dull start, overall.

12 min: JR in Illinois lather –

"Have you seen what Jorginho did to Aguero during the first second of the match? It was not a "lost arm" of Jorginho. It was a deliberate elbow that aimed at Aguero's face. He did not establish a clear connection, but a furtive glance, but it was as blatant as the red card you would like to see. And Moss stood five feet away. Unbelievable."

I will have to watch again at half-time. That would have – and should apparently – be pretty much the fastest red card in history!

10 minutes: Quite clearly, now, that Chelsea adopts the conservative approach. But they are now causing a flutter as a long switch from Emerson beats a poorly positioned Laporte and lets Kante almost clear. He is blocked, legally, by Zinchenko, but their fans have briefly screamed.

8 min: The referee is Jonathan Moss, by the way. The city continues to press, but Chelsea offers spicy challenges and does not seem to want to give up his chances at the moment. Rudiger has already intervened several times.

5 min: Yes, it's a good start for City and now Aguero gets a ricochet and goes right, claiming a handball after a defender has blocked his cross. Nothing is given.

3 min: City keeping the ball well early. Did Sarri go for the model that beat them in December?

1 minute: Blimey – literally after the coup, Aguero tries to overtake Jorginho and is sent by a lost arm. It looks very painful, but it gets up, City takes the free kick and then wins a quick corner … which is cleared by Barkley.

The death of Sarriball or the birth of something beautiful?

It's an interesting question, to be fair. I doubt that I can find the answers in the next four minutes, but if someone has statistics to give him, send them afterwards.

Teams advance to Wembley right now – There will be meetings, greetings, jokes, hymns, then we will be absent!

Oh that then, yes, and shame on me because I write this as a jump, jump, jump from Arsenal's home. They beat Southampton 2-0 with the first goals of Lacazette and Mkhitaryan!

Joe Pearson writes: "Perversely, regarding the qualification of the Europa League, it does not matter who wins this final (assuming that the standings are maintained) .If Chelsea wins, they qualify automatically.If City wins, the qualification falls to … Chelsea. "

It's true and it's a good point. The stakes for Chelsea and Sarri are even greater than that, I think.

Pep too, briefly!

"[The 6-0] It was an incredibly important result for us, but today is a final, a different competition, and we hope to be able to play the game as if a final deserved to be played. "

Sarri speaks!

"We played every three days [since the 6-0] It is difficult to work in the field. We talked a lot about trying to improve ourselves. Two months ago we played [City] and won with a game of great application. We know we can do better and better.

"I do not understand why you ask me [about his future] because you know very well that I can only give my opinion. You must ask the club. "

We were not fooled by his opinion.

"Chelsea is playing on the same pitch as the one who beat City 2-0 last year," notes Neil Bailey, who scores a point. It was a strange game, because Chelsea grabbed it after returning to the stage of possession of Plan B, essentially.

He finished aimlessly at Old Trafford, and was rather a slog. Half an hour until this one now …

Paul Wilson explains very well how Chelsea could learn from the example of City:

The quality in United v Liverpool has been … deficient, shall we say. We will definitely improve at Wembley. Fans of Chelsea: good call to leave Higuain on the bench?

You do not know if you have heard of it, but another game is in progress at the moment. Simon Burnton will guide you through the last striking strokes of Manchester United v Liverpool and then I'll have a lot more of it. In the meantime, find out about your thoughts and predictions!

Chelsea: Kepa, Azpilicueta, Rüdiger, David Luiz, Emerson, Kante, Jorginho, Barkley, Willian, Hazard, Pedro. Subs: Caballero, Christiansen, Kovacic, Loftus Cheek, Hudson-Odoi, Giroud, Higuain.

Manchester City: Ederson, Zinchenko, Laporte, Otamendi, Walker, Fernandinho, Silva, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Sterling, Aguero. Subs: Muric, Danilo, Kompany, Gundogan, Sane, Mahrez, Foden.

Strong of City, with Ederson in goals rather than Muric, who would usually expect to play in this competition. Guardiola is clearly desperate for victory. Despite the absence of Hudson-Odoi at the start for Chelsea despite his goal against Malmo Thursday, Jorginho and Hazard are among the players to return – and Barkley starts. Higuain is on the bench. Probably we will see Hazard as a fake nine, which tends to work well against smaller teams but not against good ones.

The sun rises in North London, Wembley looks resplendent, it almost looks like it's May. But it's the final of the league cup, rather than the FA Cup final, and the stories around it may well move us to the last. Manchester City will gag to win the first of a series of four potential trophies, and keep it in the process, make no mistake. If they lose today, the chance to achieve something historic, if it is not massively likely, has disappeared. But for Chelsea, there is something quite different at stake.

Chelsea won this competition for the last time four years ago and would love to return. In case of failure, you would have the impression that Maurizio Sarri is made for; that the Chelsea overhaul be completed before it actually began and that an exhausting cycle of upheaval recommences? It was a 6-0 loss to City just two weeks ago, which suggested that the goose was cooked. Anything that might look like this would surely seal the deal today. tends to go.

The players want to win stuff, it's the bottom line, and the Chelsea international team will be desperate to do it today. There is no way for City to score six goals better than Chelsea on a normal day; It's not a normal day but it's a cup final and it's usually a great leveler. Will it be enough?

My opinion: whatever happens today, you can not give up Sarribecause it was obvious * even before he had entered * that it was not just a type of instant results, that it would take a year or two to develop and get going. they were going at that time, under current ownership, Chelsea will just confirm itself as a case. Do what City did with Pep and let things evolve during a quiet first campaign! Has Sarri been propelled by the firecracker from such a fantastic start to the season, who even saw Chelsea be suggested breathless as title contender these first few weeks? I think so too. The football of the last few weeks has not really been good, but he needs more time to recruit his own people and his ideas, not just Jorginho, whose new supporter status seems totally unreasonable and simply deviant. .

Anyway. Will it be day today for Chelsea and Sarri? Is all this just a derisory diversion from the inevitable? This is the beginning of something fabulous for a city that has not always reached the peaks of last season? So much to ponder, so little time: we leave at 4:30 pm UK time. So, send us your ideas by email and / or Twitter now!