Diaz’s double points City into League Cup quarter-finals
MANCHESTER CITY’S teenagers shone as they eased into the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup with this win over Fulham.
All eyes were on 18-year-old Phil Foden and Brahim Diaz, 19, as they were handed rare starts at the Etihad Stadium, and neither disappointed.
Diaz’s first senior goals settled the tie and gave a hint of why Real Madrid have been linked with the Spaniard, while Foden, who has also seen his name in the transfer gossip columns this week, went close twice and was full of running and intelligent passing in City’s engine room.
The only sour note for City came late on when Kevin de Bruyne, still working his way back to full fitness, went down in pain and was immediately replaced by manager Pep Guardiola
Guardiola was unable to shed any light on the injury, commenting: “He’s being checked by the doctor. Right now I don’t know if it’s nothing or something serious.”
He was satisfied with the result, however, which ensured a place in the last eight of the competition, where they will face either Leicester or Southampton.
“Excellent, it was a good performance,” he said.
“We played with a lot of discipline, we were clever with the ball. I would have liked to score more goals, but that’s okay.”
City had made 10 changes from Monday’s win at Tottenham, with John Stones the sole survivor from the side that started at Wembley.
Diaz broke the deadlock with his first City goal.
Vincent Kompany headed down a looping cross from Fabian Delph and Diaz ran on to it to hit a powerful shot that deflected off Aleksandar Mitrovic to beat Rico.
The hosts doubled their lead in the 65th minute. Jesus’s shot across goal was touched on to a post by Rico, and Diaz riflled in. BARNSLEY fans’ long wait to see Cauley Woodrow pull on a Reds shirt could end tomorrow.
For the summer signing from Fulham has been sidelined since injuring himself in one of his first training sessions at Oakwell.
The 23-year-old signing was a major coup for the Tykes, but the striker has been forced to watch from the sidelines for the opening 15 games as Barnsley embarked on life in League One.
But after returning to firstteam training, Tykes boss Daniel Stendel looks set to include him as a substitute for tomorrow’s visit of Southend United.
“He is in contention to play, but you can see in the training that he is not 100 per cent,” said Tykes assistant head coach Andreas Winkler.
“That is normal after such a long time. A muscle injury is totally different to a sprain.
“We can bring him on the bench if he’s in his mind or head 100 per cent.
“He is close. He is really fit, but you could see in the sprints and duels he is 80-90 per cent, maybe 95. That is normal. Right now, we let him train and not think about the injury.”
The youthful Reds team currently sit fourth in League One, last week’s win over Bristol Rovers preventing a third successive loss.
And they have the chance to put pressure on leading trio Portsmouth, Peterborough and Sunderland when they face Southend at Oakwell.
“The younger you are the less experience you have,” Winkler said. “You use these matches, these situations, to learn from it. We don’t have one kind of leader, we have many leaders, but we enjoy working this way.
“They (Southend) have their style of football, they play very directly, but also have good ball possession.
“I think they are better than their results, much better, and they are a strong side.”