OWLS ARE NO PUSSYCATS
Rearguard action keeps City at bay until that man Aguero finally breaks the deadlock
SHEFF WED 0 MAN CITY 1
MANCHESTER City’s rule as Premier League champions may soon be over, but their reign as cup kings shows no signs of ending.
Just three days after lifting a third successive League Cup, City won their 20th successive domestic tie to earn a place in the FA Cup quarter-finals.
Sergio Aguero was the difference yet again for City as the striker bagged his 23rd goal of the season against Garry Monk’s awkward and stubborn Sheffield Wednesday.
The strike moved Aguero clear of Wayne Rooney as the top scorer for a Manchester club with 254 goals.
The Blues remain the ultimate cup specialists and they are determined to amass as much silverware as they can, even if Liverpool are about to deprive them of the Premier League trophy.
They should have won by more against an organised Owls side who showed little ambition in front of a far-from-full Hillsborough.
Nicolas Otamendi and Benjamin Mendy hit the woodwork and Joe Wildsmith frustrated City, although the Owls’ third-choice keeper was at fault for Aguero’s winner.
Phil Foden was brought back down to earth with a bump after his man-of-the-match heroics in Sunday’s League Cup final as he was dropped to the bench.
Kevin De Bruyne did not even make it that far, such are the riches available to Pep Guardiola.
Monk made six changes, even though it was Wednesday’s moment in the national spotlight, leaving out Tom Lees, Steven Fletcher and Cameron Dawson as he handed Wildsmith his first start since August 2018.
Monk’s policy seemed one of damage limitation because of their wretched form – they had won just one of their past nine Championship games.
Wednesday’s blue-and-white ranks lined up midway inside their own half in an attempt to suffocate City.
They made no attempt to press City, leaving the visitors to dominate possession while trying to break them down.
The Owls rarely threatened playing so deep, although Jacob Murphy, just about their only attacking outlet, did cut inside Benjamin Mendy to curl a left-footed shot just wide of the far post.
City were wasteful and Gabriel Jesus headed wide from inside the six-yard box from John Stones’ dinked cross to the back post and Riyad Mahrez blazed over from Liam Palmer’s poor clearance.
Jesus was guilty of another miss when Aguero picked him out on the right with a floated cross, only for the Brazilian to fail to connect.
City adjusted their sights and were just centimetres away from opening the scoring when Otamendi beat Julian Borner to head against the face of the bar.
City continued to attack in waves and Wildsmith saved from Aguero, touched Mendy’s drive against the bar and denied Bernardo Silva in quick succession.
But the Owls keeper went from hero to zero as he was badly at fault when City made the breakthrough on 53 minutes. Mendy fed Aguero, who turned Dominic Iorfa and hit a shot which Wildsmith could only parry into his own net with his left hand.
VAR might have disallowed the goal for a hairline offside decision against Aguero, but the technology was not available last night.
Monk threw on his top scorer Fletcher, but City retained their grip on the game and Wildsmith made a fine double save from Stones and Rodri.
The Owls belatedly went for it in the final 10 minutes and Fletcher just failed to get on the end of fellow-substitute Alex Hunt’s cross.