**Holders Manchester City hosted Brighton at a noticeably empty Etihad Stadium in round four of the EFL Cup, off the back of their first league loss of the season against Aston Villa on Saturday.**
Brighton came into the fourth round having lost five of their six previous fourth round matches in the EFL Cup, with the only outlier being a third round loss to Chelsea. A win would see their strong start to the season continue despite their 2-0 loss away to Liverpool at the weekend.
Both sides fielded XIs with a mix of junior and senior players and started out working swiftly on the counter, with Brighton’s Michael Svoboda lucky not to concede a penalty early on against Rayan Cherki as he took him down on the edge of the box with inches to spare.
The visitors got off the mark first on the stroke of 30 minutes as Jack Hinshelwood played the ball into the box to Georginio Rutter who shot from distance, but it was directed in by 20-year-old Malick Yalcouye, who clipped the ball into the right-hand side of the goal where it was spilled by City goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli into the back of the net.
Manchester City equalised just nine minutes later through Mateo Kovacic after loose Brighton defending gave away possession in a dangerous area. Floyd Samba’s clip into the box hit the arm of Jaouen Hadjam but Phil Foden carried on playing, keeping his composure as his teammates stopped to call for handball allowing Kovacic to shoot from outside of the box and put it past Jason Steele to make it 1-1.
There is no VAR at this stage of the competition, meaning play could not be called back.
Brighton came out swinging for the second half as Hadjam broke forward on the left wing and then cut back in the box to Rutter who placed his shot into the bottom right corner with ease to give Fabian Hurzeler’s side their lead back within two minutes of kick-off. They tried to make the most of their advantage, pinning Enzo Maresca’s men back into their own half but failed to make the most of any corners or chances.
City took the opportunity from a counter to push play back into Brighton’s half and after Rutter conceded a foul on Foden inside the D, equalised from a Cherki free kick in the 72nd minute, which was deflected into goal past Steele by his teammate Vitor Reis to make it 2-2.
Hurzeler’s decision to bring on Lewis Dunk, one of his most reliable penalty takers, was telling of how he planned to use the game’s final 10 minutes. Maresca followed suit minutes later, bringing on Enzo Fernandez. Although both had their fair share of chances, the final score in normal time was 2-2.
With no extra time in this stage of the cup it was straight to spot kicks and after six perfect penalties it was Kovacic to fall first, shooting low into the arms of Steele, but he was quickly redeemed as Yasin Ayari took a near-identical kick that was also saved, failing to give Brighton any lead.
Hurzeler’s tactical substitution came back to haunt him as Lewis Dunk set up to take the crucial 10th kick, but shot low and centrally, lacking enough power to cause Rulli any real trouble and making for an easy save, to end the match at 4-3 to Manchester City.
Manchester City will find out their next opponents later tonight and the two sides face each other again in an identical league fixture on Saturday 31 October.