MANCHESTER CITY broke an unwanted record after 275 matches as they crashed out of the Carabao Cup.
Pep Guardiola’s side were dumped out as they lost 2-0 to Southampton.
It is the first time in 16 ties Guardiola has lost a domestic cup quarter-final in his managerial career.
And the performance on the St Mary’s pitch was one of the worst by a City team in his entire Etihad reign with Jamie Redknapp slamming it as “diabolical”.
That was summed up by Manchester City’s failure to have a single shot on target in the match.
Opta stats prove that is the first time the Citizens have been unable to muster a single effort on target since a Champions League match against Liverpool way back on April 4, 2018 – nearly five years ago.
READ MORE ON MAN CITY
Last night’s game was their 275th match since that painful 3-0 defeat at Anfield.
To add insult to injury, the away side – who were aiming to win the Carabao Cup for the fifth time in six years – were penalised for two foul throws.
Guardiola said: “The better team won. We didn’t play good, we didn’t play well in the beginning.
“Today was a bad night, the opponent was better so we have to congratulate them.
Most read in Football
FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS – BEST NEW CUSTOMER OFFERS
“To win games you have to deserve it and tonight we didn’t deserve it.”
Guardiola did name a weakened team to play Southampton.
He probably hoped his second-string XI would have enough firepower to beat the Premier League’s basement boys and rest his superstars for Saturday’s Manchester derby.
However, the Spaniard brought on Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and Rodri from the bench to try and rescue the tie after falling 2-0 down within 28 minutes.
It did not work, though, as Haaland failed to connect with a late header on what turned out to be a comfortable night for Gavin Bazunu – and instead the Norwegian striker was taunted as a “s*** Rickie Lambert” by witty Saints fans.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
