Manchester City’s Three Stars: Swansea City (A)
It was another trip to South Wales for Manchester City in the FA Cup, after seeing off Newport County fairly easily in the previous round.
However, things did not go as swimmingly for the visitors, and after 45 minutes, it looked as though they could be knocked out of their first cup competition this season.
Swansea took a shock two-goal lead into the interval as Matty Grimes slotted home an excellent penalty after Fabian Delph conceded the spot-kick 20 minutes in. Not 10 minutes later and the Swans had doubled their lead, thanks to a quite brilliant passing move starting with Swansea goalkeeper Kristoffer Nordfeldt, and finished off superbly by former Blues attacker Bersant Celina.
However, it was Manchester City who were celebrating by the full-time whistle. Substitutes Raheem Sterling, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Sergio Aguero came on to swing the game back into their team’s favour. An excellent strike from Bernardo Silva in the 69th minute was quickly followed with an equaliser from a controversial penalty. Aguero’s strike from the spot hit the post and rebounded in off Nordfeldt’s back.
With less than five minutes of regular time remaining, Aguero made sure he got his name on the scoresheet, heading in fantastically from Bernardo’s cross to see City snatch a dramatic win.
Pep Guardiola’s team will now travel to Wembley to play Brighton and Hove Albion in the semi-finals of the FA Cup.
Here are my three stars from the game.
SERGIO AGUERO:
Many people still fail to see just how influential this man is for City. An ever-present in the team for eight years now, Aguero continues to improve in Sky Blue.
Had it not been for Kun’s introduction just after the half-time break, there is no doubt City would not have progressed any further. Despite media questions of offside over his winner in the match, Aguero’s header to win the game was quite exceptional, a feat he makes look easy, however few can master.
A quite brilliant footballer who is so important to Manchester City and their quest for more trophies this season.
OLEKSANDR ZINCHENKO:
It seems as though Oleksandr Zinchenko can do absolutely no wrong for City at the moment. After a quite abysmal first-half performance from both City full-backs in South Wales, Guardiola once again put his trust in the young Ukrainian international to add a bit more pace, power and quality down the left-hand side.
It did just the trick. Combining with Bernardo Silva and Raheem Sterling frequently in the second half saw City score twice from that side of the pitch and constantly ask questions of the Swansea defence, something they rarely did with Fabian Delph and Leroy Sane in the first half.
BERNARDO SILVA:
One thing most City fans are sure of this season is that if Bernardo plays well, the team plays well.
There is no doubt that when the Portuguese international finds himself in possession, he is always looking to make something special happen, and quite often he does.
Struggling to find the key passes in the first half against the Swans, once Pep changed things up and made the right substitutions, Bernardo was able to have much more of an influence on the game, drifting inside to collect the ball then find pockets on the left to either find Aguero – which he did, leading to a goal, or himself trying to contribute to scoring. He scored a phenomenal goal.
A contender for Player of the Season? Very likely.