‘Wonder strikes’ give Pellegrini maiden trophy

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany celebrates with the trophy after winning the Capital One Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, London.

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini lifted his first trophy in English football and then targeted an ambitious quadruple.

City won the Capital One Cup with a thrilling 3-1 win over Sunderland at Wembley.

They looked destined for their second shock Cup final defeat inside 12 months when Fabio Borini gave the Black Cats a deserved first-half lead. But Yaya Toure and Samir Nasri scored within two minutes of each other to put City ahead and Jesus Navas ended any hopes of an upset in the final minute.

City are still in the FA Cup and they lie second in the Premier League.

They are two goals down in their Champions League tie with Barcelona, but Pellegrini hopes he can guide his team to glory in all three remaining competitions.

“We are the only club that has the chance to continue trying to win all the competitions and this gives us a lot of confidence,” said the City manager.

“We wanted this trophy but I don’t think that anybody can think that is enough. I don’t think for top players or important clubs, you are satisfied with one trophy.

“We know it won’t be easy, but we are going to try.”

There was no way City looked capable of launching such a devastating comeback at the end of the first half.

Sunderland ran the show in the first 45 minutes and when Borini shrugged off Vincent Kompany to fire past Costel Pantilimon from a tight angle it came as no surprise.

The favourites would have been 2-0 down had Kompany not denied the Italian with a superb tackle just before the break.

In the end it took two “wonder strikes”, as Sunderland manager Gus Poyet called them, to put City in front. Toure curled a dipping shot over Vito Mannone from 30 yards to level and Nasri clipped a sweet half-volley just inside the Sunderland goalkeeper’s far post from Aleksander Kolarov’s pass.

Sunderland boss Poyet was stunned by the quality of both goals.

“I am proud of my team,” he said. “For 45 minutes we were more than decent but then Toure scores from 35 yards in the top corner.

“Maybe if we had two goalkeepers we would have stood a chance.

“It’s not nice when you are on the losing side. I hate it but someone needs to win. It’s a final.

“The difference was two special goals. We didn’t take our opportunities and then it was bang-bang.”