Manchester City earned progression to the quarter finals of the FA Cup once again on Saturday evening, defeating Newcastle United 3-1 in what turned out to be a fairly comfortable outing for Pep Guardiola's men.
It was not always a plain sailing match for the Citizen's however, who found themselves behind within twenty minutes as Harvey Barnes fired the Magpies into the lead of proceedings.
But City hit back through Savinho prior to the break before Omar Marmoush swiftly put his side into the lead following the resumption of the match.
The Egyptian then added the insurance goal for the visitors in the 65th minute to cap off another impressive display from the seven-time FA Cup winners.
Story of the match
As is so often the case in this fixture, both teams looked to get off to a fast start in another high-intensity start at St. James Park.
With three minutes on the clock, City thought they got off to the perfect start as Omar Marmoush slipped the ball through to Tijani Reijnders. The Dutchman looked destined to fire his side into the lead, but the effort drifted narrowly wide of the right post; the visitors should have been a goal to the good.
Newcastle swiftly threatened themselves as **Harvey Barnes**’ attempt forced an instinctive block from Abdukodir Khusanov, who did outstandingly well to deny the Englishman.
Only moments later, City’s defence was in peril once more as James Trafford made a fairly uninspiring clearance that ended at the feet of Nick Woltemade. However, another piece of heroic defending, this time from Nico Gonzalez, ensured the game remained in the balance.
The home side were having the better share of chances and had seriously grown in confidence in the opening stages of this encounter. Malik Thiaw was the next in black and white to give City a scare, his effort from close range sailing off target.
Only a few minutes later, the Magpies did get their reward for their extremely positive start via Barnes. Sandro Tonali’s defence-splitting pass fell to the winger, who carried the ball into the box and placed his effort into the top right corner.
It was no more than Newcastle had deserved, as the visitors’ backline was looking tremendously shaky; Guardiola’s men would have known that they needed to amend this promptly before things got worse.
City were gradually becoming more settled in their play, and this was becoming obvious as they began to generate a higher quality of opportunity. Savinho in particular was beginning to get some joy, finding enough space to fire an effort from a tight angle and force a strong parry from Aaron Ramsdale.
The momentum was starting to tip in favour of the visiting side, with City levelling affairs in the 39th minute through Savinho. It was an unusual finish, to say the least, from the Brazilian who controlled Jérémy Doku’s delivery and simply watched the ball roll into the back of the net.
The visitors were firmly in control now, and very nearly took the lead on the stroke of half-time. Ramsdale made a mess of things and was caught off his line, but due to the tight angle, City were unable to capitalise as the ball went out for a corner that bore no fruit.
It was a frantic first half of football at St. James Park. Newcastle had total control over proceedings but began to drift away once more after taking the lead, something that simply cannot be done against an opponent of the calibre of Manchester City.
The Magpies could not have endured a worse start to the second half as they fell behind within the first two minutes following the interval. It was Omar Marmoush, a regular scorer against Newcastle, who found the back of the net on this occasion.
Matheus Nunes darted forward with the ball before fizzing a dangerous-looking pass into the box. Nico O’Reilly missed the ball completely, but the Egyptian was looming behind him, taking a touch and firing a venomous effort into the back of the net from close range.
It was a disastrous start to the second half from Newcastle, who certainly were not out of proceedings yet, but were stuck on the back foot. Savinho continued to threaten, cutting inside from the right, but this time his effort was a wild one, much to the relief of Lewis Hall, who was struggling to stop the Brazilian.
Eddie Howe’s men were really hanging on as City came close to doubling their advantage, denied only by a desperate block from Hall, who was working overtime to try and keep the Magpies afloat in the cup.
Despite this, City looked inevitable, adding a third to their tally in the 65th minute as Marmoush got involved in the goalscoring once more. It was a beautiful hit from the Egyptian who left Ramsdale with absolutely no chance as the ball nestled perfectly into the top left corner to seemingly put this result beyond doubt.
Newcastle looked utterly dead and buried now; this game had got away from them. Once in such a commanding position in this outing, Howe would have to look at where this one went wrong as City eventually emerged as winners and comfortable ones at that.
Guardiola, despite appearing extremely animated at times in the match, would be leaving St. James Park once again as the much happier head coach, as his team showed plenty of grit to fight their way back into this one and claim victory.
The Magpies will be sick of the sight of the Citizens now, having been knocked out of both cup competitions by them. However, there is no time to mourn this defeat as heads would need to be picked up swiftly ahead of a Champions League clash with Barcelona.