Manchester City

2-1

Aston Villa

Samaras 16, Vassell 48

 

Davis 85


The FA Cup 
Fifth Round Replay
The City of Manchester Stadium
Tuesday 14 March 2006
Winning club receives £120,000




Manchester City have made it through to the Sixth Round of The FA Cup, thanks to the instincts of the former Villa favourite Darius Vassell but not without a nervous closing period to the game.

On a wet and windy night in Manchester, it was Stuart Pearce's side who took a firm stranglehold on this Fifth Round replay, just as they had done at Villa Park more than three weeks ago.

On that occasion City were unable to convert their dominance into goals and were kept in the competition by a last-minute equaliser from 17-year-old Micah Richards.

This time City were far more clinical and rarely looked troubled once Greek striker Georgios Samaras had given them the lead with just a quarter of the game gone.

Clean through on Thomas Sorenson's goal, Samaras looked to have squandered the early opportunity when he shot with his weaker left foot.

The shot was somehow parried by the Danish goalkeeper and with the rebound falling perfectly for the long-haired striker, he was grateful for the second chance and put City ahead.

Aston Villa struggled to cope with the loss of Patrik Berger to injury in the warm-up, the creative Czech midfielder suffered a knock and David O'Leary was forced into a reshuffle and just four subs to call upon.

The situation was not helped when their leading scorer and fellow Czech Republic international, Milan Baros, also had limped out of the tie just five minutes before half-time.

The tie continued in a competitive spirit, and with a number of players carrying slight knocks in the build up to this game it was inevitable that more players would suffer injury.

The opening goalscorer Samaras did not come out from the interval and was replaced by Antoine Sibierski. That did little to slow the pace of the home side's forward play and they doubled their lead just three minutes after the break, with Darius coming back to haunt his former club.

From a Joey Barton corner Aston Villa cleared their lines only as far as Kiki Musampa who squared the ball back to Barton on the right flank. His low cross evaded the Villa defence and Albert Riera fired in a fierce shot that was turned in with predatorial positioning from the in-form striker.

With Villa pushing forward looking to find a way back into the match, it was City who found greater opportunity in attack with Albert Riera in particular producing several moments of real quality from the left side of City's midfield.

Just when you thought that City would progress with comfort, Northern Irish international Steve Davis put Villa back in with a shout with five minutes to play.

With neat attacking play and a late surge from the midfielder preceded by a firm strike past David James it was 2-1, and City were visibly unsettled by the goal as David O'Leary's men sought a dramatic equaliser.

Despite some nervy moments though Stuart Pearce's side were able to hold on, and will be interested observers on Wednesday night as they will face the winners of West Ham United against Bolton in the Sixth Round.

Man City boss Stuart Pearce said: "I thought we played pretty well, we were disappointed to lose George at half time but we coped well - it would have been nice to win it 2-0.

"There was a bit of pressure for us, what with the home draw in the next round and some people may have thought it was a forgone conclusion.

"I am absolutely proud of my players for their application, their desire, their will to stop the other team playing - overall the commitment was unbelievable. I don't ever doubt their battling qualities and they have done it again tonight when it became a little more difficult.

"A home draw is all you can ever ask for but whoever we play, West Ham or Bolton, it will be a very difficult game."

Aston Villa manager David O'Leary said: "We didn't score soon enough and gave ourselves a lot to do going two goals down like that.

"I can't fault the effort of the players, The FA Cup is all about that and the young lads will learn from what happened out there. That is always important as they are the future of the club.

"Good luck to Manchester City, best of luck to them in the next round."

Man City: D James, S Jihai, R Dunne, M Richards, S Jordan, T Sinclair, J Barton, K Musampa, A Riera, G Samaras (A Sibierski 45), D Vassell (B Wright-Phillips 89)

Subs not used: N Weaver, D Sommeil, C Reyna,

Aston Villa: T Sorensen, A Hughes, O Mellberg, L Ridgewell, W Bouma, G McCann, S Davis, G Barry, M Baros (C Gardner 40), K Phillips, L Moore

Subs not used: S Taylor, J Samuel, P Whittingham,

Referee: Phil Dowd

Attendance: 33,006