Terriers knocked out of the Emirates FA Cup
- Manchester City 5-0 Huddersfield Town
- Terriers defeated at Emirates FA Cup in Third Round
- Class of the World Champions tells at the Etihad
World Champions Manchester City knocked Huddersfield Town out of the Emirates FA Cup at the Third Round stage, making their extra quality count in a 5-0 win.
Town’s defence was impressively organised against the World Champions for the opening half hour, but then Phil Foden showed his undoubted quality in opening the scoring. Town were defending their box and Rudoni blocked a shot from Alvarez, only for the rebound to drop to the England man – he squeezed an early shot the defender and across Lee Nicholls into the far corner.
Three minutes later it was two when a low cross from the other side was deflected at the near post into the path of Alvarez, who managed to get a toe to the ball and divert it inside the near post.
The third goal in the 58th minute had an air of misfortune about it, with Oscar Bobb’s cross hitting Ben Jackson and looping over a stranded Lee Nicholls.
City’s fourth in the 65th minute was pure quality, with Foden running onto a short corner on the edge of the box and finishing sublimely into the bottom corner.
Substitutes Jeremy Doku and Kevin De Bruyne combined for the fifth, with the Frenchman sending a difficult half volley past Nicholls.
Despite the scoreline, there was some individual performances that provided real interest for Town fans, namely the debut of Chelsea loanee Alex Matos and the immediate selection of Brodie Spencer following his loan recall from Motherwell.
19-year-old midfielder Matos showed some impressive qualities, displaying real physicality and determination to win the ball to make several important tackles and blocks in the opening 45 minutes.
His 13th minute tackle on centre back Manuel Akanji earned him the game’s first yellow card, and sadly the Swiss international couldn’t continue, but Matos showed great energy throughout his first Emirates FA Cup appearance and was still making important blocks in first half added time to prevent World Cup winner Julian Alvarez from netting a third.
Alex also showed what he can do going forward with one 21st minute run. Winning a 50-50 with an opposing midfielder, he then charged forward down the left and made it to the dead ball line before City swept up the danger. Regardless, it impressed the travelling faithful.
On the right side, Spencer was game too. He had the difficult task of keeping England international Jack Grealish quiet, but the Northern Irishman stuck to his task well. He also put a thunderous challenge in on Spanish left back Sergio Gomez that left his opponent bloodied through the heavy collision, with Spencer being awarded a foul too.
At the other end, Town were trying to break Manchester City’s high line through front man Sorba Thomas. He thought he had raced clear in the 13th minute, but the assistant’s flag eventually went up after Ortega saved his shot.
Rudoni was also inches away from latching onto a quick free kick from Thomas towards the end of the opening half, with the ball bouncing just ahead of him in the City penalty area.
Our two big chances came in the second half. On the hour mark Thomas did very well initially to out-manoeuvre Ruben Dias to latch onto Koroma’s ball over the top, but his eventual shot from just inside the area was too close to ‘keeper Ortega.
Then our second new signing of the January window, Bojan Radulović, went even closer to a goal on debut after coming on for the final half hour. He received a clever reverse pass into the penalty area from Thomas and turned past Dias onto his right foot, only for Ortega to executive a great reaction save at his near post from his eventual right footed shot.
The Serbian striker did well during his minutes on the pitch, showing some nice link-up play and movement to get into dangerous areas.
Town’s team (5-4-1)
Lee Nicholls; Brodie Spencer, Tom Lees, Michał Helik (c), Rarmani Edmonds-Green, Ben Jackson; Ben Wiles (Tom Iorpenda, 88’), Alex Matos (Bojan Radulović, 61’), Jack Rudoni, Josh Koroma (Brahima Diarra, 81’); Sorba Thomas
Unused substitutes
Giosue Bellagambi; Tom Edwards, Kyle Hudlin, Josh Austerfield, Loick Ayina, Michael Stone
Town bookings
Alex Matos (13’), Brodie Spencer (90+3’)
