Two huge games, two pulsating cup ties, and still all is to be played for. After 180 minutes of tension, six goals and heaps of drama saw Manchester City take the biggest step towards Wembley as they cruised to victory in the Manchester derby as Leicester and Villa scrapped to a draw in the pouring rain.
If it sounds like the kind of midweek double-header that might inspire an Oasis lyric, that’s because it was.
Manchester United 1-3 Manchester City
It would be cruel to say that Manchester City completely dominated the EFL cup version of the Manchester derby on Tuesday night. However, but for a 10-minute spell at the beginning and end of the game, it would be completely true, and that will be all the more damning for the red half of Manchester to accept this week.
With the Red Devils coming into the home first leg on the back of a stirring away victory at The Etihad Stadium in the league just three weeks ago, memories of that memorable Saturday evening didn’t exactly come flooding back at Old Trafford. In fact, it was yet another reason to see why the away side often get the better of the hosts in these games, relieved as they are of the pressure from 95% of the crowd.
United carried the greater threat in the early minutes, but all it served to do for them was to make City angry and leave their own hopelessly exposed central defence open to attacks. A stunning strike from Portuguese magician Bernardo Silva was the opener, bending past David De Gea into the top corner.
United were shell-shocked, but where they might better have tried to suffocate the game, instead they took a deep breath and threw men forward in pursuit of a quick equalizer. All they got in return was to fall further behind by way of a second goal, Victor Lindelof cruelly exposed by City’s midfield, then sent to the ground by a through-ball played to Riyad Mahrex to perfection, the Algerian gratefully accepting the invitation to round David De Gea and slot into an empty net.
The cous-de-gras, however, would be the third and potentially decisive goal scored by City, again before half-time. City cut through United not so much like a hot knife through butter, but a scythe through thin air as Phil Jones was sat down like a naughty toddler by a swift turn by Kevin De Bruyne. De Bruyne, in rude health and regal form for the visitors in the Premier League, turned EFL Cup king as he smacked his shot towards goal, De Gea’s reflex save only serving to deflect the ball to the unfortunate Andreas Pereira, who turned into his own net.
If the first half was a farce, the second 45 minutes was the kind of drama that TV boxsets serve up in the second year after their award-winning debut season. Dull, lacking plot and needing action, it briefly found it when Marcus Rashford coolly struck home from a delightful through ball to reduce the arrears. But the damage appears to have been done, and it will take a performance of massive magnitude – minus the maligned Maguire – to reverse what looks to be a forgone conclusion. Manchester City have one foot on the Wembley coach and possibly one hand on the EFL Cup trophy already.
Leicester City 1-1 Aston Villa
The Foxes could not overturn The Villains at the King Power Stadium after a false nine gave a false dawn in the Midlands derby.
Aston Villa, playing without a striker after Wesley’s season-ending injury was followed by more bad luck and illness on the training ground, took a surprise lead when Guilbert struck home in the first half. In truth, Leicester had been the better side, but Jamie Vardy in particular had been thwarted when clean through and others, such as the increasingly frustrating to watch Youri Tielemans were wasteful in possession.
It took until the introduction of Kelechi Iheanacho for Leicester to show their true colours, and finally having the numbers committed in attacking positions against a five-man Villa defence marshalled magnificently by the impressive Tyrone Mings, it would be the substitute who would score the equalizer. Vardy’s incisive pass was smashed home by the former Manchester City striker and although Leicester failed to follow up that late leveler with a winner, if the performances are to be replicated at Villa Park, it may be The Foxes who eventually show the greater bite.
Whoever reaches the final, we won’t find out for three weeks, which seems deflating for the fans given how exciting the first legs have been. We’ll be on hand to provide you with all the heart stopping drama of those pivotal play-offs for the final when they arrive. At present, it may well we another year of blue ribbons adorning the EFL Cup.
