Leicester City vs Manchester City. Carabao Cup Quarter-Final.
The King Power StadiumAttendance31,562.
Manchester City win 4-3 on penalties.
Wednesday 20 December 2017 08:04, UK
Manchester City edged into the Carabao Cup semi-finals after beating Leicester 4-3 on penalties following a 1-1 draw after 120 minutes of action.
Bernardo Silva (26) put the visitors ahead at the King Power Stadium and they looked to be heading through in normal time, but Leicester were awarded a 96th-minute penalty after Kyle Walker fouled Demarai Gray in the box, which Jamie Vardy converted.
With neither side able to find a winner in the 30 minutes of extra time the game went to penalties and, after the first three players from each team had scored, Vardy sent his spot kick wide and Riyad Mahrez had his saved by Claudio Bravo to send Leicester out of the competition.
Man City now join Arsenal in Wednesday's semi-final draw after the Gunners beat West Ham 1-0 in Tuesday's other quarter-final.
Man City began the game well as Silva nicked in ahead of Christian Fuchs in the 14th minute before shooting, but saw his effort well saved by Ben Hamer.
But the Leicester goalkeeper then nearly gifted Man City with an open goal as he came off his line to collect a pass, but skewed the clearance, allowing Ilkay Gundogan to strike - but Harry Maguire was waiting to clear before Silva volleyed the rebound wide.
Gundogan nearly got the better of Hamer again in the 21st minute as he looked to curl home from the top of the box, but the Foxes stopper did well to tip the effort onto the crossbar and over.
But five minutes later Man City opened the scoring. It was a devastating counter-attack from the visitors, with Gundogan picking out Silva in the box after a storming run down the field, and the midfielder poked the ball home.
Leicester's best chance of the first half came in the 34th minute as Ben Chillwell got in behind the Man City defence before finding Kelechi Iheanacho on the right of the box. He played a give and go with Shinji Okazaki before hitting low, but his effort was tipped away well by Bravo.
Although the second half was played with a good pace, there were few clear-cut chances. Man City had the first sight of goal in the 62nd minute as Silva raced into the box from the right flank but his attempted cross for Gabriel Jesus went behind the striker and ran wide.
The Foxes twice went close to an equaliser in the final 10 minutes of normal time as Mahrez sped away down the right flank before whipping a fine cross into the box for Vardy, but Bravo collected before Gray's fizzing delivery just evaded the foot of the England striker.
But they made the breakthrough in the seventh minute of added time as Walker was judged to have fouled Gray in the penalty area. Vardy fired the penalty into the bottom corner to take the game into extra time.
Both sides had a chance to nab the winning goal in each half of the added period. Vardy raced through on goal in the first as Bravo collected a back pass and almost netted with his shin as the Man City goalkeeper miss-hit his kick, but the ball went wide. Alexander Zinchenko then tried his luck from 30 yards after the break but it curled over the crossbar.
Neither could find the breakthrough, though, and the game went to a penalty shootout using the new ABBA system. It was a 100 per cent record for both sides but Vardy and Mahrez saw their fourth and fifth kicks for Leicester saved by Bravo to send Man City into the semi-finals.
Claude Puel: "I just think we are unlucky. I think we have had most chances, it was a good game, fantastic game between two good teams, and it is a disappointment of course.
"But we have no regrets, because we gave our best, and just perhaps the beginning of the game, with 20 or 25 minutes gone we saw the quality [of Man City], but afterwards we played very well."
Pep Guardiola: "I am so happy. Especially when the situation is bad, it's how you react. There were no complaints in extra time to say how unfair it was in the last minute. Instead of that, they tried again and tried again for the penalties as well.
"A lot of young players played, two guys played their first official games for Man City so it's good. I'm so happy that the old players helped the young ones and to reach the semi-final with the way we did it."
Having mostly been playing second fiddle to David Silva this season, Bernardo Silva shined at the King Power on Wednesday, scoring the opener and got himself into a number of good positions to add more for his side. He will certainly have given Guardiola something to think about for the busy festive period.
Both clubs are back in Premier League action on Saturday, with Leicester once again live on Sky Sports as they welcome Manchester United to the King Power Stadium (7.45pm). Man City will welcome Bournemouth for a 3pm kick off.
