Manchester City 2-0 Newcastle United FA Cup Quarter Final

Manchester City made five changes coming from their 1-1 draw at Anfield last Sunday. 

Stefan Ortega started ahead of a sidelined Ederson. Dias and Doku are back in the starting line up and Gvardiol and Kovacic are back in the side as the usual cup game starters. 

Manchester City started off energetic with Doku running at his man on multiple different occasions in the opening ten minutes. Jacob Murphy was able to dispossess the Belgian everytime they came up against each other. 

It took 12 minutes for the home side to break the deadlock. A very patient buildup on the edge of the Newcastle box allowed Rodri to find Bernardo Silva, whose shot deflected off Dan Burn and looped into the far side of the back of the net. 

City kept up the pressure and shots from Haaland and Doku were unable to find the net as Newcastle done just enough to keep the tie still at 1-0. 

Doku yet again picked up the ball from deep and ran at the heart of the Newcastle defence but this time was taken down by Jamal Lascelles which saw the defender pick up a yellow card. 

Bernardo doubled City’s lead on the half hour mark as yet another deflected shot, this time by Bottman, send Martin Dubravka the wrong way. 

Newcastle’s first big chance came from Aleksander Isak as a composed header from Dan Burn fell into the path of the striker, but Ortega’s great reflexes kept the home sides clean sheet. 

The first chance of the second half came from yet another Doku chance. Foden with a fantastic flick round his man allowed Doku to shoot across goal but yet another Dubravka save gave his side hope. 

Just after the 50th minute, City had a promising counter attack with Haaland running with the ball and had options either side of him. The striker took it alone but his shot brushed wide of the far post. 

Shortly after, Newcastle had a chance to get back into the game as they found themselves outnumbering the City defence. Substitute, Almiron sent Isak into a goal scoring chance but Akanji closed the striker down and a great chance was wasted. 

The substitutions from both managers injected a lot of energy in the latter stages of the game which saw a lot more creativity as the tired legs left the pitch. Oscar Bobb made an instant impact as his link up play with Foden almost saw Haaland place the ball in the back of the net but was denied by Dubravka yet again, 

City will travel to Wembley Stadium for the first time this season as they look to retain one of their three trophied this season.