Man City toys with 4th-tier side
06 January, 2020
Holder Manchester City began its assault on the F.A. Cup with a 4-1 victory over fourth-tier Port Vale, but Manchester United and Wolverhampton Wanderers face an unwanted replay after drawing 0-0 at Molineux on Saturday.
Goals from Oleksandr Zinchenko, Sergio Aguero, Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Phil Foden made it a routine day for City, although Tom Pope had equalized for a Vale side sitting 74 places lower in the standings.
Manchester United, like City, made multiple changes to its starting lineup at Wolves in a tie that never caught fire.
United failed to land a single attempt on target, although Marcus Rashford struck the bar before Matt Doherty had a goal ruled out for Wolves.
Leicester City, second in the Premier League, beat Wigan Athletic 2-0, Bournemouth beat Luton Town 4-0 and Portsmouth won 2-1 at Fleetwood in the day’s other late kickoffs.
Earlier, third-tier Rochdale held Premier League Newcastle United to a 1-1 draw with 40-year-old substitute Aaron Wilbraham grabbing a late equalizer at Spotland.
Goals by Connor Jennings, Emmanuel Monthe and a late Paul Mullin penalty earned third-tier Tranmere Rovers an unlikely 3-3 draw at Watford after they trailed 3-0 at halftime.
There were two top-flight casualties. Last season’s beaten semifinalist Brighton & Hove Albion went down 1-0 at home to Sheffield Wednesday and Aston Villa lost 2-1 at Fulham.
As has become customary in the F.A. Cup, Watford and Villa both made nine changes to their starting lineups, one fewer than Southampton, which avoided an upset as it took down Huddersfield 2-0 to reach round four.
Although the F.A. Cup has lost some luster, Port Vale’s Pope provided one of the day’s memorable moments.
When Zinchenko’s long-range effort put Manchester City in front, the floodgates looked set to open.
Instead, the 34-year-old Pope hit a thumping header beyond Claudio Bravo from David Amoo’s cross to spark wild scenes of celebration among Vale’s 8,000 visiting fans.
They were only level for 7 minutes, however, before Aguero finished off good work by Foden.
City needed a VAR intervention to have Harwood-Bellis’s goal ruled legal, the youngster deflecting in John Stones’s shot, despite initially being ruled offside before Foden completed the scoring.
Vale manager John Askey said his team was “fantastic.”
“I was worried before the games that teams have come here and got annihilated,” he said. “When our goal went in you started to dream a little bit.”
Wolves, playing their 36th game of a marathon season, will have another match to prepare for after their stalemate with a United side that faces neighbors Man City in the League Cup semifinal first leg on Tuesday.
Source: the-japan-news.com