QUARTER-FINALS UP ROMP China’s stake in leaders
Bony strikes to help ease City into semis
Taylor and Chuba Akpom set off through midfield without the ball as the Tigers looked to break.
De Bruyne seized on it and drilled a low shot past Jakupovic that came back off the post but Bony was first to react to bury the loose ball into an open goal.
Bruce stood, scratching his head on the sidelines, wondering why on earth his side would decide to do City a huge favour.
With David Silva starting to pull the strings on his first start since early October, the omens did not look good for the Tigers.
Bony tried his luck again after 30 minutes with a long-range effort that flew straight at Jakupovic.
It took the Tigers more than 43 minutes to muster a threat on the City goal and when the chance came it was wasted by Akpom, whose tame shot failed to trouble Willy Caballero.
De Bruyne stung the palms of Jakupovic with a powerful drive 10 minutes into the second half as City pushed for the second goal required to kill off the visitors.
Moments later Jesus Navas lashed a left-foot shot wide and Pellegrini decided to send on England star Raheem Sterling in the hope of injecting some life into his labouring team.
Sterling was probably the last person Bruce wanted to see with his side hanging on by the skin of their teeth.
That did not last as Sterling burst down the left and his cross to the near post was turned in by Iheanacho, also on as a substitute.
There were still 10 minutes left which was time for De Bruyne to score twice.
His first came after 82 minutes when he seized on Andrew Robertson’s weak header back to his keeper and nipped in to score.
Six minutes later De Bruyne crashed home straight from a free-kick at the edge of the box before Robertson grabbed an excellent, but irrelevant, injury time consolation for a well-beaten Hull. MANCHESTER CITY’S billionaire owner Sheikh Mansour has sold a 13 per cent stake in the Premier League leaders.
Chinese investors have paid £265m for the shares in the club’s parent company, City Football Group (CFG).
The deal, aimed at expanding CFG’s interests in the lucrative Far East market, values the group at £2bn.
City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said: “Football is the most loved, played and watched sport in the world and in China, the exponential growth pathway for the game is both unique and hugely exciting.
“We have therefore worked hard to find the right partners and to create the right deal structure to leverage the incredible potential that exists in China, both for CFG and for football at large.”