Sunday 28 February 2016 21:52, UK
Manuel Pellegrini paid tribute to Willy Caballero after the Man City goalkeeper saved three penalties to help his side win the Capital One Cup at Wembley on Sunday.
City's No 2 saved spot-kicks from Liverpool's Lucas Leiva, Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana after the final ended 1-1 after extra time to help Pellegrini win his third major trophy as Man City manager, and his second League Cup.
Caballero also made a number of important stops in normal time, including a point-blank save from substitute Divock Origi, while Raheem Sterling missed the chance to put City two goals ahead before Coutinho's equaliser.
There were calls for regular No 1 Joe Hart to return to the City side for the final, but Pellegrini said he always trusted Caballero, who had regularly featured in domestic cup competitions.
"We deserved to win the game, and we missed too many goals" the City manager told Sky Sports. "We played better than Liverpool but I think if you tell me which way I prefer to win, I prefer to win this way.
"I prefer to lose a title than to lose my word, so Willy Caballero played tonight. I know some media were ready to criticise me if Willy made a mistake but I trust him so I am very happy to win the title for the players, the club, the fans and staff and for Willy, because he deserves it.
"I was concerned about the amount of goals that we missed. I don't remember one save during the 90 minutes from Willy, and after all they draw in the last eight minutes.
"It wasn't easy for me to make changes because we have players coming back from injury, but we finished playing better. It is a very important moment for City, we played very well. To win a title at Wembley is always very special."
Pellegrini, who will be replaced at the end of the season by Pep Guardiola, can still end his time in charge with two more trophies, and said his focus turns to the Premier League and Champions League.
"We are working very hard, and we are in the middle of the season," he added. "It's important for the team to continue fighting for the other titles.
"I am not thinking about leaving, I am thinking about the next game which is against Liverpool. We need to keep fighting in the Premier League, we are nine points behind but we will keep going.
"I made a difficult decision in the FA Cup, but this title and what we did in the Champions League supports my decision."
Cup final hero Caballero added: "It's amazing, to win this cup, for me it's amazing. It was a hard week for me but we had a talk that we could do it. It is fantastic for the blue people.
"It's important, emotional for me, my family, to be in this great team. It is a first trophy for me and for my family in Argentina."
On his saves, he added: "I tried to see all the penalties last night, but my intuition got me through."
Captain Vincent Kompany said: "It's not the best way (to win), it's the most unfair way.
"There was so much emotion in this final, we were having so many chances and missing so many. We left everything out on the pitch.
"We have got experience, we looked around ourselves, we found a moment of peace and calm and kept doing what we were doing. They were playing well but we were creating chances."
