Manchester City 4 Leicester City 2
Notts County await the Citizens in round four after an absorbing replay which was as pleasing to the eye as the original tie last weekend. Two goals in the space of a minute late in the first half did for Leicester. The Foxes had been level with a Paul Gallagher penalty after Carlos Tevez opened the scoring for the home side, but strikes from Patrick Vieira and Adam Johnson put Man City in a commanding position at the interval.
After the break the home side spurned the chance to increase their lead when the in-form captain put a spot kick straight down the middle making it easy for Chris Weale to save. A lucky break of the ball off referee Mark Halsey led to Lloyd Dyer pulling one back for Leicester and whilst it could’ve been an uncomfortable last five minutes for the Citizens they countered and Aleksandar Kolarov eventually put the tie to bed.
The Foxes’ wide men impressed again and it was a great shame when Gallagher limped off with only half an hour played. Lloyd Dyer was a constant thorn in Man City’s side First blood went to the home side though after a quarter of an hour when Tevez raced through the Leicester defence receiving the ball from a Pablo Zabaleta throw in, rode a poor challenge from Yuki Abe and smashed the ball past Weale. A few minutes later and the visitors were handed a way back into the match thanks to a foolish trip just inside the box by Vieira on Dyer and Gallagher dispatched from twelve yards.
Tevez was involved in Man City’s second. A great ball by the Argentine found Zabaleta who squared to David Silva. His shot was kept out by a combination of Weale’s palm and Sol Bamba’s clearance which fell straight to Vieira for a tap in. Leicester lost the ball from the restart and Silva slipped a defence splitting pass through to the onside Johnson to place into the net.
Just more than ten minutes into the second half Jack Hobbs brought down Tevez in the area. Clearly the last man referee Halsey felt the penalty award was punishment enough, the Eastlands crowd chanting for the Foxes centre half to be sent off. In an otherwise top display from the Argentine however his spot kick was poor. The match official had shown leniency, but when Dyer and Vieira and squared up to one another after the former felt he had been fouled the coming together resulted in both players going into the notebook.
Seven minutes from time the ball broke off Mark Halsey to Abe in centre field whose pass was found by the marginally offside Dyer, but the flag stayed down and he slotted it past Joe Hart to set up a tense ending at Eastlands. Leicester overcommitted in search of an equaliser and were duly picked off as the Citizens countered. After taking some time to work an opening, despite the home side having a five on three advantage early in the break Kolarov hammered the ball home from the edge of the area to seal the win.
Richie Wellens and Andy King did not perform as well as they did in the original tie, the former being subbed for Matt Oakley at half time. The Foxes remain a threat in wide areas and from set pieces although the examination they gave Man City this time round was one they dealt with far better.
Quality told in the end, but don’t be surprised if Leicester push on towards the play-off places under Sven. They are playing some attractive football and the calibre of the opposition in the Championship is nothing like what they have faced over these two cup matches. Mancini’s men will go marching on still in three competitions, but must remain second favourites to United in the Premier League title race because of the Red Devils’ games in hand.
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