London: Manchester City showed no mercy on beleaguered West Ham by romping to a 3-0 victory in the second leg of their League Cup semifinal on Tuesday, completing a 9-0 aggregate thrashing.
Alvaro Negredo scored twice and Sergio Aguero added the other goal to ensure City will contest its first League Cup final since 1976, against either Sunderland or fierce rival Manchester United at Wembley Stadium on March 2.
Having grabbed a hat trick in City's 6-0 win in the first leg two weeks ago, Negredo ensured there would be no miracle turnaround by heading in the opening goal at Upton Park after less than three minutes.
Aguero clipped home a deft finish in the 24th for his third goal in as many matches since returning from a calf injury and Negredo powered through some weak defending to wrap up the scoring in the 59th. It took City's goal tally for the season in all competitions to 106 in 35 games.
Most neutrals will likely be hoping for an all-Manchester final, but Sunderland leads the other semifinal 2-1 after the first leg. The return match is at Old Trafford on Wednesday. British bookmakers were offering odds of 500-1 that West Ham would complete an inconceivable turnaround. Many in the media dubbed it "Mission Impossible."
And even though City fielded a weakened lineup, the visitors maintained a professional, positive attitude to the second leg and had far too much class for West Ham, which has endured a miserable season and is marooned in the Premier League's relegation zone. It's the biggest aggregate margin of victory in a League Cup semifinal.
"It was important the way we reached the final, winning all our games," Pellegrini said.
Pellegrini started with his first-choice strikeforce and Negredo opened the scoring after just three minutes, emphatically heading in a cross from 18-year-old Portuguese winger Marcos Lopes.
Aguero, who was making his first start since returning from injury, ran onto a pass from the impressive Lopes, beat his marker and chipped the goalkeeper.
Negredo then moved onto 23 goals for the season - one more than the entire West Ham team has managed in 22 games in the league - by muscling his way through the home defense and applying a deft finish on the slide.
"We didn't want to lose," City defender Joleon Lescott said. "We wanted to keep our winning streak going."
The 60-year-old Pellegrini is now the brink of winning his first piece of major European silverware, having left Spanish football empty-handed after spells with Villarreal, Real Madrid and Malaga across nine years.
City is also in the running for three other trophies - it is second in the Premier League, through to the last 16 of the Champions League and in the fourth round of the FA Cup. To make matters worse for West Ham, midfielders Joe Cole and Mohamed Diame went off injured in the second half.
Gervinho sees Roma past Juve in Cup quarters
Gervinho sees Roma past Juve in Cup quarters
MILAN: A late goal from Ivorian striker Gervinho helped Serie A title challengers Roma book their ticket for the Italian Cup semi-finals with a deserved 1-0 win over Juventus on Tuesday.
Roma had suffered a 3-0 league defeat to Juventus a fortnight ago and with the hosts losing last season's final to Lazio, coach Rudi Garcia fielded a full-strength side at a packed Olympic Stadium.
Juve counterpart Antonio Conte, meanwhile, took the opposite approach.
He rested 'keeper Gianluigi Buffon, a number of midfield stars including Paul Pogba, Kwadwo Asamoah and Stephan Lichsteiner and strikers Carlos Tevez and Fernando Llorente.
Roma, as might be expected, dominated the early exchanges with Radja Nainggolan and Alessandro Florenzi seeing shots go wide, but it took until late in the half for the Giallorossi to threaten.
Vasilis Torosidis whipped in a superb curling ball at the far post with which Kevin Strootman, at full stretch, narrowly failed to make contact. Roma captain Francesco Totti then saw his volleyed snapshot go wide, while Florenzi failed to reach Gervinho's ball when it was fired across the box.
Juventus had the ball in the net shortly after the restart when Federico Peloso headed past Juve number two 'keeper Marco Storari from close range, but his effort was ruled offside.
Florenzi was next to come close with a header from Torosidis which took Storari by surprise but the second half was nowhere near as productive as the first.
As the game stalled, Garcia replaced Florenzi with Miralem Pjanic while Conte attempted to waken his team from their relative slumber by replacing striker Sebastian Giovinco with Llorente on 77 minutes.
Garcia's switch was to pay dividends, Pjanic reaching the ball before Andrea Barzagli to stride forward and set up Strootman deep on the left. The Dutchman's cross arrived in the box and Gervinho did well with to tap the ball home while in mid-air with the side of his right boot in the 79th minute.
Roma were fired up and Totti delivered for Gervinho which the striker missed, and minutes later the Ivorian sent a low, weak shot into the arms of Storari after late substitute Adem Ljajic had carried the ball from midfield.
Pjanic then came close with a shot in injury time, while Juve's frustrations boiled over with Chilean Arturo Vidal cautioned for dissent. On Wednesday Milan host Udinese for their second match under new coach Clarence Seedorf with high-flying Fiorentina away to Serie B side Siena a day later. Napoli host holders Lazio in the last quarter-final on January 29.
Benzema edges Real Madrid towards Cup semis
Benzema edges Real Madrid towards Cup semis
MADRID: Real Madrid took a huge step towards the Copa del Rey semi-finals with a 1-0 win away to Espanyol in the first-leg of their quarter-final tie on Tuesday. Karim Benzema got the only goal of the game as he headed home Alvaro Arbeloa's cross on 25 minutes.
Espanyol were indebted to goalkeeper Kiko Casilla for not having an even greater deficit to overcome next Tuesday at the Santiago Bernabeu as he made a string of fine saves to keep his side in the tie. However, they should have snatched a draw on the night as Colombian striker Jhon Cordoba fired straight at Iker Casillas when played through on goal eight minutes from time.
Real boss Carlo Ancelotti named a strong side with Xabi Alonso the only first team regular to drop onto the bench. And the Italian was rewarded with a commanding display from his side as they extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 18 games.
Cristiano Ronaldo fired an early effort across goal before Espanyol passed up a huge chance to take the lead when Pizzi blasted over Sergio Garcia's neat cut-back from inside the area.
Thereafter it was one way traffic before the break as Casilla turned another low effort from Ronaldo onto the inside of the post. Madrid did take the lead midway through the half as Gareth Bale flicked on Arbeloa's cross and Benzema powered home a header for his 14th goal of the season.
Casilla then saved from Benzema and a Bale free-kick, whilst Angel di Maria ballooned another clear opening well over the bar. Espanyol posed more of a threat at the beginning of the second period as Garcia curled an effort inches wide of Casillas' right-hand post.
However, the visitors should have left Barcelona with a more substantial lead as Casilla denied Arbeloa twice from close range before Benzema forced the keeper into another smart save low to his left when he should have squared for the completely unmarked Ronaldo in the middle.
And Madrid were nearly made to pay as Casillas had to make a brave block from Cordoba before Marcelo cleared off the line following a goalmouth scramble in the latter stages to seal the victory and a sixth consecutive clean sheet for Los Blancos.
