FA Cup Fifth Round:

 

Swansea City 1 - Manchester City 3

So this time around there was no cliff hanger, no half time lead for Swansea, and no need for a controversial comeback from Manchester city. 

Pep Guardiola’s side arrived at the Liberty Stadium on the back of 14 straight league and cup wins, and duly followed the script as goals from Kyle Walker, Raheem Sterling, and Gabriel Jesus set up a comfortable passage into the quarter finals. 

Swansea, who went in on the back of a 10 game unbeaten run themselves, did find late solace through a debut goal from Morgan Whittaker, and manager Steve Cooper was at least able to reflect on his side refusing to cave in having trailed 3-0 early in the second half. 

City slickers take hold early on: 

As expected, it was the visitors who dominated first half possession, and there was barely two minutes on the clock when Jesus forced Freddie Woodman into a diving two handed save. 

There was a flash of threat from Swansea when Jordan Morris, on his first start, showed Eric Garcia a clean pair of heels before narrowly failing to find Yan Dhanda with his low cutback. 

But at the other end the pressure grew and then 30 minutes in, it finally yielded a goal. After Rodrigo fired into the side netting Woodman twice denied Ferran Torres with smart saves – it was Kyle Walker who broke the deadlock when his low cross deceived everyone and found the far corner. 

Falling behind did spark a brief rally from the hosts as Jay Fulton headed just off target from a Connor Roberts cross, and then a slick passing move saw Jamal Lowe’s close range shot blocked by Garcia. 
From the corner that followed, Dhanda’s inswinger was nodded wide by the otherwise outstanding Marc Guehi. 

Sterling and Jesus settle things early: 

But any flickers of hope for a comeback from Swansea were cast aside within five minutes of the restart. Firstly, Sterling latched onto Rodrigo’s threaded ball before placing a shot past Woodman – and moments later Bernardo Silva’s cushioned header was fired home by a swivelling Jesus. 

A similar pattern continued as Guaridola introduced the likes of Rihad Mahrez and Phil Foden to the fray but then 13 minutes from time, it was a Swansea replacement as debutant Morgan Whittaker brought respectability to the score line. 

With his first meaningful touch, the 20-year-old controlled Ryan Manning’s pass before turning and firing a crisp left foot volley past Zack Steffen and into the bottom corner. 

It wasn’t enough to stir any kind of rousing comeback, but it did at least salvage a respectful score line for the home side before they switch to focus back to a promotion push. 

Starting with a Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, Swansea face 11 league games between now and March 20^th. Steve Cooper will know that last night won’t define his side’s season – but the next six weeks or so might. 

Swansea City: Woodman; Latibeaudiere, Cabango, Guehi (Bidwell 66); Roberts (Freeman 66), Grimes (C), Fulton, Dhanda (Hourihane 76), Manning; Morris (Whittaker 66), Lowe (Arriola 66). 
Subs not used: Webb, Bennett, Naughton, Ayew. 

Man City: Steffen; Walker, Garcia, Laporte, Mendy; Rodrigo (Gomes 72), Gundogan (Doyle 57), Bernardo (Foden 66); Torres, Sterling (C) (Mahrez 57), Jesus.