Another of these in under 72 hours will do just fine. High stakes, a relentless pace. Enzo Maresca and Fabian Hurzeler produce pure chaos – and that is just on the touchline.
Somebody should stick GPS trackers on these two. Both managers hopped and jumped, right on the edge, right on the cusp of glory and disaster in equal measure. The intricacies of a match at both this quality but also this speed can do that.
A breathless tie and these were the second strings, remember. Separated only by penalties, only by Lewis Dunk’s effort being pushed away by stand-in goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli. City nudged into the quarter-finals via a shootout, where League One Bradford City now await.
More importantly, Brighton are back here on Saturday afternoon and will do so with a reasonable expectation of winning too. Undoubtedly, it represents Maresca’s biggest test of his short reign to make sure one league defeat doesn’t quickly become two.
He will be armed with far stronger artillery. Erling Haaland has been given the first half of this weekend off as annual leave alongside Elliot Anderson, Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol and Gianluigi Donnarumma – decisions made with mental rest in mind.
City built a head of steam as this fascinating spectacle wore on but will be able to do so boasting the division’s finest striker and a central midfielder who drives them on when the serious stuff occurs. Hurzeler, engagingly brilliant in that slightly manic fashion of his, will be hatching plans to answer those questions.
Manchester City beat Brighton on penalties to keep their Carabao Cup title defence alive
Lewis Dunk missed the decisive penalty as Brighton missed out on a place in the quarter-finals
The 33-year-old can draw those up not far from here. Brighton are spending the rest of this week in Manchester and they were beginning to look at home, picking holes in the City system – one largely focused on going man-to-man, something that prompted their opener, Georginio rutter dropping off the front and finding Malick Yalcouye.
That Brighton didn’t kick on and finish this was a source of agitation for their boss. ‘The goals we conceded were very unlucky,’ he said. ‘They had the luck today. We have to reset. We have a great chance on Saturday to take revenge.’ He did add that sleeping in a hotel, ‘not in our beds’ for three nights is not exactly ideal, although their facilities in the area will be top.
Hurzeler wasn’t the only one wearing a look of frustration on the night, Maresca pent up when City first equalised through Mateo Kovacic. Andrew Madley had waved away appeals for a penalty, when Jaouen Hadjam’s hand halted City’s progress, and part of Maresca’s celebration once Kovacic swept in from the edge of the box was a small row with the fourth official.
That there had been a combined 16 changes between the teams from their weekend defeats and that they still manufactured this fraught night indicated that the match up in a few days should be mouth-watering. A shame, really, that the UK television audience won’t be able to watch the three o’clock kick off.
More of the same would go down a treat and you just cannot call it beforehand – especially when Hurzeler’s team play like this. ‘No doubt it will be the same on Saturday,’ Maresca smiled. ‘They are scoring many, many goals every game. They’re always on the front foot. It’s going to be exactly the same.’
Bring that on. Poetry, Brighton’s second. Within two minutes of the restart, pinning City into uncomfortable areas with a collection of first-time knocks, passing lines painting triangles up the left, and Hadjam rampaging forward to square for Rutter, whose thump into the far corner was impressive in both precision and power given the lack of back lift.
Malick Yalcouye gave Brighton the lead against holders Manchester City
Mateo Kovacic dragged Man City level with a shot from range which went in off the post
Georginio Rutter restored Brighton’s advantage on the stroke of half-time at the Etihad
A Rayan Cherki free kick deflected in off Vitor Reis to ensure City took the match to penalties
Were it not for Rulli’s acrobatics in tipping Rutter’s curling effort onto the bar, Brighton might have sorted the tie out before Maresca could even call for Jeremy Doku. Donnarumma’s understudy was also caught in no man’s land in his only blemish and Rutter ought to have capitalised. Yankuba Minteh later nearly snatched it for the visitors and Mats Wieffer struck a post.
Let offs and Doku’s introduction had appeared to wake City from a slumber and they were level again with 18 minutes remaining. Rayan Cherki was illegally stopped as he danced through on goal and his eventual free-kick on the box’s edge squeezed beyond Jason Steele via an instinctive flick by Vitor Reis.
Enzo Fernandez somehow failed to convert Phil Foden’s sensational cross in stoppage time but that only served to thrust his Argentina team mate Rulli to the front of the stage. He saved twice – first Yasin Ayari and then Dunk – to become the hero of the evening. Could he usurp Donnarumma? ‘No,’ Maresca said unequivocally.
