AFC Bournemouth 1 Manchester City 2: match reportBlues come back to see off Cherries to set up FA cup semi-final with Nottingham Forest
Manchester City returned to action following the international break and travelled down to Bournemouth for the FA cup quarterfinals looking to continue their bid to at least win a trophy this season. It was the first time the Blues were in action since the 2-2 draw to Brighton earlier this month. Bournemouth had suffered a slump in form recently, failing to win in normal time in the past 5 fixtures and dropping to 10th in the League. Ederson started in goal with Nunes, Khusanov, Dias, and Gvardiol in defence. Kovacic, Gundogan, and Bernardo were in midfield with Foden and De Bruyne in attacking midfield. Haaland was the sole striker
The first half did not go the Blues way at all, in fact they barely seemed to get out their own half a times with Bournemouth’s high pressure forcing errors. City did manage to get very close in the 12th minute, when a penalty was awarded for a handball by Bournemouth’s Adams on the back of an attempted cross by Bernardo. The resulting effort from the spot from Haaland was unfortunately relatively poor and it was an easy save for Kepa straight to his left. First big frustration for the Blues. Minutes later, Haaland was through on goal following another mistake from Adams and attempted to chip the ball over Kepa but put too much on it and the shot went over the bar.
Predictably, following these moments of agonisingly close chances, Bournemouth capitalised. In the 21st minute following a misplaced pass from Nunes, a Bournemouth ball in found Semenyo, who headed it easily into the path of Evanilson who needed just to tap it in to give the Cherries the lead. Once again, City were on the back foot.
Essentially, following the Bournemouth goal, the Blues sleepwalked to trailing 1-0 at half time. They had not much chances at goal, too many unnecessary errors and something needed to change. Khusanov received a yellow card in the first half and was subbed off for Nico O’Reilly, who scored twice in the Blues’ fifth round win over Plymouth.
This change turned out to make a lot of impact, almost instantaneously. In the 48th minute, O’Reilly charged down the left wing and played a fantastic cross into Haaland, who tapped it home to make the scores all square again. Just the start to the second half that City needed. From here, it was generally one-way traffic and essentially a complete reverse of the first half. City were well in control and their lead was only inevitable shortly.
One negative City must take from the second half though is Haaland, who following a collision with Lewis Cook, picked up a nasty looking ankle injury. After treatment from physios, he signalled he could not continue and had to be substituted off. His replacement was Marmoush, who’s impact, like O’Reilly’s was almost instantaneous. City had the ball near the Bournemouth box and O’Reilly escaped a tackle from Semenyo and managed to pass the ball through to Marmoush, who’s shot found its way underneath Kepa’s hand and into the back of the net and City finally had the lead.
City had their chances to double the lead, but they couldn’t quite get there with a few close-range shots saved by Kepa and Gundogan hitting the post. Bournemouth did nothing to punish these missed chances by the Blues however, and like City in the first half, didn’t seem to get anywhere near goal at all. After keeping cool heads and maintaining firm control of the game, City managed to see out the win and it ended 2-1.
An inspiring second half performance has set up City’s final push this season to see what they can salvage. Their hopes of silverware remain alive with this result, and they will be looking to do what they can in the League to secure a spot in the Champions League. They face Leicester next at home this Wednesday before facing bitter rivals United on Sunday.
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