Bernardo Silva got two goals as Manchester City defeated Newcastle 2-0 to advance to the FA Cup semi-finals on Saturday, while Coventry scored two goals in extra time to surprise Wolves 3-2.
City, the current title holders, are still on track to achieve their treble win of the Premier League, Champions League, and FA Cup from last season as Pep Guardiola’s team extends their unbeaten streak to 22 games in all competitions.
The English champions were lucky as Silva’s shots deflected twice to fool Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Dubravka.
The Portuguese player opened the scoring in the 13th minute when his shot went in off Dan Burn.
Silva’s second goal also deflected off Sven Botman, but Dubravka should have done better as the ball went under him.
Despite the absence of City’s main goalkeeper Ederson, Stefan Ortega made a great save to deny Alexander Isak a goal for Newcastle.
Dubravka redeemed himself with excellent saves from Jeremy Doku before and after half-time to keep the score low.
However, it was too late for Newcastle’s hopes of winning a major trophy this season as they have not won one since 1969.
City have reached the semi-finals seven times in the past eight seasons under Guardiola.
– Coventry’s progress under Robins
In contrast, Coventry made it to their first semi-final since winning the competition in 1987 in a thrilling five-goal match at Molineux.
The Sky Blues took the lead early in the second half through Ellis Simms’ disputed goal after a VAR check for potential handball by the Coventry striker.
But the Championship team appeared to have missed their opportunity to reach Wembley when Wolves scored twice in the last seven minutes of normal time.
Rayan Ait-Nouri capitalized on a mistake from Joel Latibeaudiere to score the equalizer, and then set up his fellow left-back Hugo Bueno to score his first senior goal.
However, Simms’ second goal of the match leveled the score in the 97th minute before he assisted American international Haji Wright to score three minutes later.
The drama didn’t end there as Wolves boss Gary O’Neil criticized Coventry manager Mark Robins’ celebrations in front of a teenage ball boy as “disgusting”.
Robins apologized after being provoked by the ball boy’s attempts to waste time near the end of the game.
“I apologize to him, I don’t show emotion very often but that is what the FA Cup does to you,” said Robins.
Coventry, one of the founding members of the Premier League, dropped from the top tier to the fourth division as recently as the 2017/18 season.
But they have achieved two promotions under Robins and narrowly missed a return to the Premier League last season, losing the Championship playoff final to Luton on penalties.
They are headed to Wembley once more in the last four, but Robins is realistic about his team’s chances of winning, considering that they may face City or Liverpool in the semi-finals.
“We have a small chance. We are going to Wembley and we are going to enjoy that game,” added Robins.
“I do not want to just invent the numbers when I go there. We are not foolish, we are aware that the levels increase regularly.”
Liverpool will go to Manchester United in the best of Sunday’s quarter-final matches, while Chelsea will host Leicester.
AFP
