De Bruyne pulls the strings for City as plucky Robins go out on high
MANCHESTER CITY took another small step towards history last night, going to Bristol City, winning 3-2, and reaching the first final of the Pep Guardiola era. City will go to Wembley to play for the EFL Cup on February 25. Yes, it is the smallest of the four trophies City are hunting, but it would still be a start.
This was not City’s best recent win, but they left Bristol with the only thing they came for. They controlled the first half and were clinical when they needed be, scoring two goals either side of half-time, to give themselves a 4-1 lead that they never looked like giving up.
Bristol City played well and Marlon Pack’s second-half header put them two goals away, before Aden Flint nodded in in the fourth added minute.
It was never going to trouble the Premier League leaders, though, and Kevin De Bruyne tapped in with the last kick of the game just to make sure.
That 3-2 narrow margin does justice to Bristol City’s remarkable effort. For much of this game they completed an unlikely double, pressing Manchester City from the front, trying to disrupt their build-up, while getting bodies back in their own box to keep out Aguero, Sane and the rest.
They played as well as they could but in reality it was never going to be enough.
Any worries that Guardiola would not take this game seriously enough were blown away in the first 10 minutes. But for Ederson and Raheem Sterling on the bench, this was Manchester City’s strongest team and they pinned the hosts back with more intense pressing than anything they managed in the first leg. Bristol City were not just held in their own half, but in their own box.
But Manchester City could not create the chances to go with their domination, missing Sterling’s ability to beat his man. And once Bristol City survived the early barrage, they grew into the game. Their fans cheered everything they could: a Hordur Magnusson block, a Joe Bryan tackle, a shuffle from Josh Brownhill. It is hard to create in open play with 10 men in your own half, but they did have set-pieces: Flint headed Magnusson’s long throw, but Claudio Bravo was equal to it.
All Bristol City had to do was stay in the game, make it to the break at 0-0, before a second-half push. But just before the whistle they made their job so much harder.
Magnusson was shepherding the ball out and somehow lost a physical challenge with Bernardo Silva, who had barely won a 50-50 all night. But he scrapped his way onto the ball and laid it back to Leroy Sane, who thumped it in.
So Bristol City had to attack and Lee Johnson made two half-time changes, throwing Famara Diedhiou on up front alongside the lonely Bobby Reid. But their two-goal target became three sooner than they could have expected.
De Bruyne broke down the middle and, his path forward blocked, he cut inside an opponent. Spotting Aguero pulling away ahead of him, De Bruyne hit a perfect right-footed curling pass onto his run. Aguero took one touch then thumped the ball across Luke Steele into the far top corner, a finish that only the best would try or pull off.
But Bristol City scored the first of those three easily enough. Stones, shaky all night, scuffed a clearance and Jamie Paterson clipped a cross into the box. Manchester City stood still as Marlon Pack ran into the box and headed home.
That gave Bristol City something to cheer and the evening felt as if it was petering out, until goals at either end in the last two minutes of added time.
First Bristol City pulled themselves within one goal when Flint nodded in from Bobby Reid’s header across the box. All of a sudden it felt as if there might be a turnaround out of nowhere, so City made sure there was not: Sane raced down the left and crossed to De Bruyne who scored. Manchester City had won the leg and won the tie, but they will have bigger tests than this ahead. (© Independent News Service)