Swansea 1-3 Man City: Pep Guardiola breathes sigh of relief after Swans threaten upset
Manchester City defeated Swansea 3-1 to secure their quarterfinal spot after overcoming a Carabao Cup scare.
Swansea had to withstand a lot of pressure, but City mostly fired blanks without Erling Haaland, until Omar Marmoush put them ahead after 77 minutes.
Swansea’s chances of repeating their third-round triumph over Nottingham Forest were finally dashed in stoppage time as Rayan Cherki rolled the ball inside Andy Fisher’s far post to seal the victory.
Pep Guardiola gave Haaland the night off, preventing him from adding to his season total of 24 goals for both club and country. The Norwegian was missed, and the eight-time competition winners were found to have been wasteful.
Gianluigi Donnarumma, John Stones, Josko Gvardiol, and Phil Foden were held in reserve while Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias, and Tijjani Reijnders were also rested.
In the midst of a hectic league schedule, Swansea also saw significant changes, with Adam Idah replacing top scorer Zan Vipotnik in the attack. Oscar Bobb was the only player left from the squad that started Sunday’s 1-0 Premier League loss at Aston Villa.
With the visitors having won twice in the FA Cup, this was City’s third trip to this region of south Wales in six years. Their first meeting took place in a 2019 quarterfinal, where Swansea led 2-0 going into the final quarter.
James Trafford, making his first appearance since the third round more than five weeks ago, was rapidly picking the ball out of the net as Swansea got off to a frantic start in a feverish environment.
Franco brilliantly found the top corner from the edge of the box after Josh Key moved forward down the right and squared.
Swansea put a lot of effort into keeping City at bay by blocking passing patterns and getting people behind the ball.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.