Pep Guardiola confirmed that Zack Steffen will keep his place in the Manchester City team for the Carabao Cup final at Wembley next week.
US goalkeeper Steffen was between the sticks for the FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea, maintaining his appearance record in every domestic cup game this season. He was caught out positionally for Chelsea's goal after deciding to come and meet Timo Werner before belatedly retreating, leaving an open net for Hakim ZIyech to tap into. However, he did then make an excellent save to stop a second after Ruben Dias had erred.
Guardiola had said that Steffen's place in the team for the semi-final ahead of regular No.1 Ederson was a necessity so that the players recognised that the manager stuck to his rules about giving everyone minutes; the goalkeeper was one of eight changes from the Champions League win over Dortmund in midweek.
And while Ederson can expect to come back into the team for the trip to Aston Villa on Wednesday, Guardiola had no hesitation in announcing that Steffen will be back in goal for the league cup final as the Blues look to win their first piece of silverware of the season.
"He's going to play in the league cup final for sure," said Guardiola.
"He made a good save, brilliant with his feet. The goal, one save, and that' all. We had more time but unfortunately we could not be more clear in the final third with the final pass. Today was a tight, tight game. We were there until the end. They made good counter attacks. They controlled at the start of the second half but no more than that."
