Teenage talent saves City from Plymouth humbling

For eight minutes, it threatened to be perhaps the most ignominious day of a managerial career that has produced three Champions Leagues, 12 domestic league titles and a couple of FA Cups.

- RICHARD JOLLY

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City were losing at home to Plymouth Argyle: the conquerors of Liverpool, admittedly, but the side with the worst defensive record in the country, a team with no away wins in the Championship but, improbable as it appeared, a lead at the Etihad Stadium.

If an improbable script reflected the FA Cup’s enduring ability to surprise, it was also a reflection of the modern Manchester City; more frail and fragile. Even victory brought a hint of the unlikely. City’s rescuer was not Erling Haaland, sent on after an hour, but Nico O’Reilly, a teenage Mancunian who started the night with one senior goal and trebled his tally. “Two goals, I wasn’t expecting it,” he said. Playing out of position, he cast Plymouth’s giantkillers out of the FA Cup.

Thankfully for City, the makeshift left-back inherited the rested Josko Gvardiol’s habit of scoring vital goals. It was also a case of salvation by set-pieces. O’Reilly headed in Kevin De Bruyne’s free kick on the stroke of half-time and Phil Foden’s corner with a quarter of an hour remaining. The possession statistics and shot counts suggested City dominated the game but they had too little creativity. Their lone goal in open play came late, De Bruyne sliding in to convert Haaland’s cross. It had an especial cruelty for the outstanding Plymouth goalkeeper Conor Hazard, who had just made his fifth terrific save of the night, and a second from Haaland.