Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy, left, vies for the ball with Burton Albion striker Lucas Akins during an English League Cup second leg semi-final match, at the Pirelli Stadium, in Burton-upon-Trent, central England, on Jan. 23, 2019.PAUL ELLIS/AFP/Getty Images
Pep Guardiola posed for selfies after getting off the team bus, and sat with his feet up in the dugout before kickoff.
It was not the most stressful of nights for the Manchester City manager.
City completed the formalities of its one-sided English League Cup semi-final against third-tier Burton Albion, winning the second leg 1-0 away on Wednesday for a 10-0 victory on aggregate.
Sergio Aguero, one of the few senior players fielded by City on a freezing night in central England, scored the only goal of the game in the 26th minute to lift the English champions to double figures across the two legs.
This game had been rendered virtually meaningless by the first leg at Etihad Stadium two weeks ago, when City racked up a 9-0 win to record the largest margin of victory in the semi-finals of an English cup competition.
City is through to the Feb. 24 final at Wembley Stadium and is looking to retain a title it has won on five occasions – three times since 2014.
Tottenham leads Chelsea 1-0 heading into the second leg of their semi-final on Thursday.
As for Burton, it brings to an end a remarkable cup run that saw the side beat four teams from leagues above them in English soccer’s pyramid. One of them was Premier League team Burnley.
“We got our pride back,” said Nigel Clough, the former England forward who is coach of Burton. “We did everything we could. Being at home, the pressure was off as the tie was over but we put in a good performance against top players.
Sevilla tops Barca in Copa quarter-finals
Sevilla took advantage of Lionel Messi’s absence, beating Barcelona 2-0 in the first leg of the Copa del Rey quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Pablo Sarabia and Wissam Ben Yedder scored in the second half to give Sevilla a big edge in the rematch of last year’s final, which Barcelona won for its fourth straight Copa title. Sevilla also lost the 2016 final to its Catalan rival.
The second leg will be next week in Barcelona, when the hosts are expected to have Messi and the other regular starters who were rested in Seville.
Neymar injured in PSG win
French Cup holder Paris Saint-Germain won 2-0 against Strasbourg on Wednesday to reach the last 16, but lost Neymar to what appeared to be a right foot injury.
Neymar, who sustained a groin injury two months ago playing for Brazil and also broke his right foot nearly one year ago with PSG, looked visibly upset as he limped off after 60 minutes of the game at Parc des Princes.
PSG won the game with an early goal from Edinson Cavani and a late one from Angel Di Maria.