ARTISTS WITH A TOUCH OF STEEL
Warnock’s Bluebirds tried to kick lumps out of them, but City proved they’re a lot tougher than they look
HE was flushed his customary pink, but Kevin De Bruyne seemed barely out of breath.
And he was as wonderfully simple and incisive in his dissection of a match as he had been when knocking the opening goal beneath a defensive wall.
“We were just trying to play football and they caught us a few times,” he said, pretty much nailing proceedings.
De Bruyne himself was caught a few times, not with the viciousness Jason Puncheon used in the game at Crystal Palace, but tastily enough on one occasion for his yelp to echo around the rafters.
But for all his brilliance, De Bruyne is also a tough nut, typifying the robustness that underpins the technical excellence of this Manchester City squad.
Pep Guardiola, long after he had hurled his scarf, was right to give it to referee Lee Mason in the neck, correct to complain about a lack of protection for his players.
But they can handle themselves, make no mistake.
Leroy Sane could not protect himself from Joe Bennett’s thuggery, but do not be surprised if he is back in action quicker than anticipated.
And, as Jose Mourinho has pointed out, Guardiola’s men can be adept at the tactical foul.
Not that they needed to be in this casual dismissal of a Cardiff City team who did not, in the way Bristol
City did for example, win many hearts and minds in defeat.
In the event it actually ever became an issue, Neil Warnock (right) has suggested he would rather have a mass chorus of “Warnock is a w **** r” than a minute’s silence in his remembrance.
Do not be surprised if Pep muttered a “hear, hear” under his breath on more than one studs-showing occasion.
It soon became evident survival in the FA Cup was not going to be the issue for Guardiola’s team, survival with a relatively clean bill of health was. It did not happen.
They almost got to half-time unscathed but, with heinous intent, in steamed Bennett. In a glorious way, Sane was the architect of his own pain, the only way his breathtaking run was going to be halted was by the despicable means Bennett chose.
Mason’s failure to dismiss the Bluebirds fullback was the outstanding contender in a fiendishly-packed field for the day’s worst decision.
To be reluctantly fair to Mason, he was not culpable for Bernardo Silva being swindled out of a beauty – that was the assistant referee who erroneously flagged Sane offside. Mason’s mediocrity was rendered insignificant by De Bruyne, not for the first time taking the low route from a set-piece to embarrass six Cardiff defenders, and by Raheem Sterling’s close-range header from a gift-wrapped Bernardo Silva cross. Sane might well have made it three had Bennett not assaulted him but, in the scheme of this match, it was never going to matter. Sterling squandered a couple of second-half chances and Cardiff made the odd incursion into Claudio Bravo territory but, as the tie fizzled out to a predictable close, the only moment of note was Bennett getting a second yellow card for a late foul on 18-year-old Brahim Diaz.
Some in the stands stood up to applaud Bennett, Guardiola turned and smiled a sarcastic smile before venting his ire on Mason.
Sane will be sorely missed, Pep has a point, but you only have to look at the remarkable De Bruyne to realise this is a team that is as tough as it is talented. It will need to be.