London (AFP)
Nico O'Reilly savoured a weekend to remember after the Manchester City defender's double sealed a 2-0 win over Arsenal in the League Cup final on Sunday – just 24 hours after his birthday.
O'Reilly turned 21 on Saturday and followed his birthday celebration with a man of the match performance at Wembley.The left-back punished a mistake from Arsenal goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga to open the scoring with a close-range header on the hour.
And O'Reilly struck again with another header four minutes later to give City their ninth League Cup triumph.
"Unbelievable feeling. To win a final, to beat this team, we know how good they are. We need to build on it, it will give us good momentum. Buzzing with today," O'Reilly said.
"Bit of disbelief seeing all the fans cheering like that when I scored those goals. Really a good feeling and a great birthday weekend. My whole family came down today. They are all in the stands and I can't wait to celebrate with them."
O'Reilly has been converted from a midfielder to a defender by Pep Guardiola since breaking into the City team. The England international said that familiarity with being in attacking positions allowed him to capitalise on Arsenal's mistakes.
"Since I was a kid, I always played in midfield, I was always arriving in the box and scoring goals," he said. "To bring it in at senior level and the highest level, it's good for me and adds goals to my game. A great feeling."
Premier League leaders Arsenal arrived as favourites to win their first trophy since 2020 but were found wanting as City deservedly won the competition for the ninth time. Five of those have come since Pep Guardiola arrived in 2016 and the Spaniard is now the most successful manager in the competition's history, moving past Jose Mourinho, Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough who all won it four times.
It might be one of the sweetest triumphs of Guardiola's vast collection too as his impressive side shrugged off their midweek elimination in the Champions League to make a mockery of talk of power shifts and Arsenal quadruples.
The Gunners, who had not won the League Cup since 1993, simply did not show up and will have to dust themselves down and focus on trying to clinch a first Premier League title since 2004.