BRAVO HITS THE SPOT FOR BLUES
CLAUDIO BRAVO had the last laugh on his critics last night with the penalty saves that put Manchester City into the last eight of the Carabao Cup.
The Chilean, who was recalled in place of first-choice Ederson, was the star of the shootout that followed two goalless hours, diving low to his right to deny Alfred N’Diaye then going the other way to turn away Connor Coady’s spot-kick.
That gave Pep Guardiola’s side a 2-1 lead in the tiebreak-style shootout, and moments later Sergio Aguero sealed the victory with a cheeky dink over Will Norris.
It was a heartbreaking end for a Wolves side who had pressed City as hard as the best teams the Premier League — and indeed Europe — during their barnstorming start to the season.
Here on a frustrating night at the Etihad, they came up against a Wolves side in no mood simply to roll over and wave Guardiola’s side through to the quarter-finals.
The Championship club were not about to concede the landmark 178th goal of Aguero’s career without a fight, or the 12th win in a row City needed to set a club record.
Wolves dug in and slugged it out better than any Premier League or Champions League club have done this season, with the sole exception of Everton.
They could even have snatched victory inside the 90 minutes had young striker Bright Enobakhare and Helder Costa not been brilliantly denied by Claudio Bravo when one-on-one with the City keeper.
Both clubs made nine changes from their weekend line-ups. In City’s case, that hardly seemed to matter. Guardiola could still call on £200million worth of talent as Gabriel Jesus, Yaya Toure, Raheem Sterling, Danilo, Eliaquim Mangala, Ilkay Gundogan and Bravo came into the team that started against Burnley on Saturday, while Oleksandr Zinchenko made his debut at left back.
Aguero retained his place as he sought to become City’s all-time top scorer outright, and Bernardo Silva was free to play after he was cleared of diving to win the penalty that allowed Aguero to equal Eric Brook’s record of 177 goals.
The Argentine certainly seemed in a hurry to score No 178 in a first half dominated by City.
Will Norris denied Aguero with a fine save inside the opening six minutes. Gundogan won possession 25 yards from goal and the ball fell to Aguero, whose dipping effort was heading inside the post until Norris sprang to his left to beat it away.
Wolves were a well-disciplined unit who defended in depth, frustrating City for long periods. Sterling went close to breaking their resistance in the 25th minute while Aguero had another stab at it before half-time as well, shooting straight at Norris from the edge of the box.
And the much-maligned France defender Mangala so nearly let the Championship side in for a goal at the end of the first half. He was slow and indecisive as he tried to shepherd the ball back to goal under pressure from Enobakhare. The Nigerian sensed his chance and stole it off Mangala before breaking through on goal.
But Bravo came out to make an excellent save with his legs.
Wolves had another great chance to score against the run of play in the 65th minute when Costa was sent through one-on-one with Bravo on the right-hand side of the box.
The Portuguese player got an unfortunate bobble off his shinpad as he tried to steady himself and that gave Bravo a vital opportunity to rush out and close down the space.
It worked. Costa tried to lift the ball over the Chile international but Bravo stuck out a big right hand and pawed it away.