CITYSCAPE
West Ham 0* Manchester City 0
The depth of City’s squad generates a sigh when the teams are announced an hour before the game. For City, their ‘reserve’ team includes De Bruyne, Stones and Zinchenko, but don’t be fooled. Grealish, Cancelo, Laporte and Foden are on the bench. West Ham’s Starting XI meanwhile includes Lanzini, Dawson, Masuaku, Noble, Yarmolenko and Vlasic. In any other season you’d abandon all hope from this point on. But there is something magical about 2021-22. City may well find out just what that is in the next ninety minutes.
I am in a fairly creative mood myself this evening, having just realised in the Year of Covid that the only person you can feel really safe shaking hands with at the club is Bubbles Man, a man who spends 90% of his life covered from head to toe in hot water and soap flakes. This is the most creative moment in the first half beyond a shot from Mark Noble which Jack Steffen beats out straight to the relieved clearing feet of Fernandinho.
The stats show an absolute monsoon of possession from City over the first 45 but, let’s face it, they don’t create a single decent chance. I wonder momentarily whether they are genuinely trying not to score. After all they beat Brighton away 4-1 on Saturday, a team that have themselves kept several clean sheets in the PL this season, currently 5th, in front of Spurs on goal difference. and they beat them 4-1.
I sense a residue of Hammers’ supporter doubt which I shake off over a half time brew from the flask. The second half ignites into life not unlike the pre-match fire starter display, and City start to play the kind of football that won them the league last season. John Stones has his header from De Bruyne’s cross on the hour brilliantly tipped over by Areola. Soucek is a minute earlier a couple of feet wide with a snatched shot from just inside the area. West Ham then fashion a triple substitution, bringing on Benrahma, Bowen and Fornals for Masuaku, Vlasic and Yarmolenko. It will prove significant, but not in the way you might have thought.
So now it’s ‘up the aunty’ again. (see game v Spurs for further details) Lanzini has his goalbound effort blocked, and Fernandinho heads over when it seems easier to score. Soucek hits his next shot wide with the goal in his sights and then Raheem Stirling, who has had a very quiet game, heads almost straight at Areola from just a few yards out. They are doing this deliberately, aren’t they? Or is it nerves? It’s doing nothing for my nerves, that’s for sure.
So it’s penalties. Noble wins the toss. I know he will take the first one, and that he’ll score, but beyond that I know nothing. Beyond that, though, is Phil Foden, who is first up for City. He scuffs his penalty wide, not unlike Marcus Rashford in the Euros, only without the flashy stop start run up. So we have only to score the other four to win. Bowen steps up. Goal. Cancelo dispatches their second penalty. Dawson steps up. Goal. Jesus scores a cheeky third. I’d call that a Ribena rather than a Rabona. Cresswell takes an age with the fourth. Goal. Grealish unsurprisingly hits their fourth home. He should have taken one for England at Wembley in July. So it’s down to our fifth penalty taker. If he scores, we are through.
And up steps Saïd Benrahma. He has no form with this either way, but he does look confident. What pressure to know that your kick wins the match. If you miss, the lost initiative may well lose the game. Thud! Benrahma hits the back of the net. West Ham are in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup, City exiting the competition for the first time since 2016. Wow.
(* West Ham win on penalties, 5-3)
13 Alphonse Areola, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 31 Ben Johnson, 15 Craig Dawson, 23 Issa Diop, 26 Arthur Masuaku, 28 Tomas Soucek, 7 Andriy Yarmolenko, 10 Manuel Lanzini, 16 Mark Noble (c), 11 Nikola Vlašić
Substitutes: 8 Pablo Fornals, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 22 Saïd Benrahma, 5 Vladimir Coufal
Goalscorer: Saïd Benrahma hits the winning penalty to take West Ham through to the quarter-finals
