In the Ukrainian Cup, there were moments when the division of teams into seeded and unseeded was canceled, but after Dynamo and Shakhtar met in the 1/8 finals, and next year – in 1/16, this practice was decided refuse . There is no seeding in the FA Cup, so in the 1/32 finals, Man City played against Chelsea, and in the 1/8 Pep’s team, another London top club dropped out, seriously aiming for the championship this year.
Everyone expected to see Oleksandr Zinchenko at the start of Arsenal, but Mikel Arteta decided to leave the Ukrainian in reserve. Among the starting lineups, it was striking that Manchester City released more of the main players, but Arsenal left a number of leaders to strengthen the game.
14. Haaland going close with an overhead-kick from the edge of the box! 😰
🔵 0-0 🔴 #ManCity pic.twitter.com/SrIXHrkEWr
— Manchester City (@ManCity) January 27, 2023
The academic game of the first forty-five minutes was remembered, on the one hand, by the activity of Trossard, who wound up opponents on his flank quite regularly, and on the other hand, by the struggle of Haaland with the defenders of Arsenal. And if the Belgian gave a shot to Tomiyasu (he famously shot from the summer, but Ortega pulled out a difficult ball), and then he beat himself (Ortega also saved), then the Norwegian tried to score more effectively. A la Ibrahimovic-style kick in the match against England did not have enough strength to fly into the goal, but it was a football masterpiece.
In addition to these moments, there was also de Bruyne’s blow past the left nine and the damage to Stones, who was replaced by Laporte at the end of the half.
Twitter Man City
In the second half, at first, the pace of the game did not increase either. But Alvarez’s entry into the field, his long-range shot into the post and Ake’s delicately accurate finishing after the selection of Grealish changed the situation. Arteta quit to save the game between Zinchenko and Martinelli.
The Ukrainian has traditionally added ball control. True, he did not have such exacerbations as Martinelli had, and, in the end, there should not have been. Beating several opponents on the line and going to the leftmost post twice could earn Martinelli the title of hero of the match, but in both cases the partners lacked quite a bit to break through.
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And then Man City remembered that he also knows how to control the game, and confidently dried it up. Even Zinchenko’s face in stoppage time reflected the understanding that the match could not be saved. And so it happened – City reached the 1/8 finals, and the Londoners will be able to take revenge in the championship. Two more head-to-head matches will have to be played there, which, no doubt, will either greatly clarify the situation in the fight for the championship, or significantly aggravate it.
FA Cup. 1/16 finals.
Manchester City – Arsenal – 1:0.
Father, 64.
Holding, 42, Zinchenko, 90+2 – Gundogan, 90+3.
“Manchester city”: Ortega – Lewis (Walker, 46), Akanji, Stones (Laporte, 45 + 4), Ake – Gundogan, Rodri – Mahrez (J. Alvarez, 46), de Bruyne (B. Silva, 75), Grealish – Holland.
Arsenal: Turner – Tomiyasu, Holding (Saliba, 46), Gabriel, Tierney (Zinchenko, 66) – Fabio Vieira, Partey (Lokonga, 46), Xhaka – Saka (Edegaard, 75), Nketia, Trossard (Martinelli, 66).
Arbitrator: Paul Tierney.
Stadium: Etihad (Manchester, England)
