Report and highlights as Raheem Sterling Panenka miss goes unpunished
Wednesday 19 December 2018 00:54, UK
Manchester City edged into the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup with a 3-1 penalty shootout success over Leicester after a 1-1 draw at the King Power.
Leicester missed three penalties in the shootout, with Oleksandr Zinchenko scoring the decisive spot kick to ensure Raheem Sterling's Panenka penalty miss went unpunished.
On his first start for City since their Carabao Cup success over Fulham on November 1, Kevin De Bruyne fired a superb opener in the 14th minute to give City the early advantage.
However, a second eluded the visitors, and Marc Albrighton's 73rd-minute volley took the match to penalties, where reserve goalkeeper Arijanet Muric was the hero, saving twice to ensure City still have a chance of a fourth League Cup crown in six years.
Both teams rang the changes but it was Pep Guardiola's team who started the match on the front foot, and their pressure told with De Bruyne showing City fans what they had been missing for the last two months.
The Belgium international picked up the ball 25 yards from goal, got it out of his feet, before using his intelligence to wrongfoot Danny Ward in the Leicester goal, firing in at the nearpost to break the deadlock.
City remained in control for the majority of the half without really creating another killer chance of note, with Leicester going close to levelling things up, with Demarai Gray denied by a fine save from Muric.
All the ball remained with City after the break, but again they struggled to break Leicester down, and the hosts seized their chance, with Albrighton scoring out of nowhere after being brilliantly picked out by Wilfred Ndidi.
A draw at full-time meant penalties, exactly what happened almost 12 months ago to the day in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals last season.
Riyad Mahrez missed for Leicester that day to gift City the win, but this time it was three poor penalties from hosts that proved decisive. Sterling, though, will not want to look back fondly on this encounter, having chipped his penalty over the crossbar.
The Leicester youngster did not deserve to be on the losing side this evening after a herculean effort. No player made more interceptions than the 21-year-old, who covered every blade of grass for the cause.
"It was tough game. It is always difficult here. We played with Kevin and Sergio (Aguero), who cannot play 90 minutes, and then a player who is 17-years-old (Eric Garcia).
"We make a good performance. Of course we had the chances to close out the game and in the end it was the same as last season."
"It's always harsh to lose on penalties, especially for the second time to the same team. But we played a complete game with a good structure and organisation and I think we deserved to come back and equalise. We didn't manage the penalties very well but that's football."
City host Crystal Palace on Saturday, while Leicester travel to Chelsea.
