FA Cup - Manchester City survive Leicester fright

Yahoo Sports
Tue, 18 Jan 21:41:00 2011
Manchester City survived a major scare to beat Leicester City 4-2 at Eastlands in their FA Cup third-round replay, handing Foxes boss Sven-Goran Eriksson defeat on his return to his former club.
The first leg had finished 2-2 at the Walkers Stadium, and fans at Eastlands witnessed a similarly entertaining clash as the big-spending Premier League giants emerged victorious in the face of a plucky effort from the Championship side.
Carlos Tevez opened the scoring for the hosts before Paul Gallagher levelled from the spot in an open first half.
Goals from Patrick Vieira and Adam Johnson seemed to put City out of sight, with Tevez seeing a second-half penalty saved by Chris Weale, but Lloyd Dyer pulled one back for the Foxes late on.
As Leicester committed men forward the hosts added a fourth, left-back Aleksandr Kolarov with a low finish in the last minute of normal time.
Roberto Mancini’s expensively-assembled side have a fourth-round meeting with League One side Notts County at Meadow Lane to look forward to, while Leicester can focus on their push for the play-offs.
Leicester had started with intent, piling the pressure on their wealthy hosts and going close twice. Both efforts came from Andy King, who saw one shot deflected over by Vincent Kompany and the other diverted into the arms of Joe Hart.
The hosts, however, were dangerous on the break, Johnson firing weakly at Weale before, on the quarter-hour, Tevez smashed a vicious shot into the top left after poor defending from Yuki Abe and Jack Hobbs.
Leicester hit back quickly through livewire winger Dyer, who drew a rash challenge from Vieira that left Mark Halsey pointing to the spot. Gallagher drilled the penalty down the middle to level the scores.
The Foxes almost took the lead when Dyer went on a direct run soon after, but his shot was deflected wide by Joleon Lescott.
After a spell of concerted pressure from the Premier League side, Leicester’s hopes appeared to be ended by two brutal goals.
First Vieira made up for his penalty error with a far-post finish after Weale had done well to keep out David Silva, the chance afforded by some weak defending by Bruno Berner as Pablo Zabaleta bombarded forward.
Then, with the visitors barely having had time to regroup, it was 3-1 as Silva slid Johnson through, the England winger just holding his run to race in and slip a low finish past Weale to atone for his earlier miss.
City dominated the opening stages of the second half and should have been out of sight when Tevez was brought down by a wild challenge from Hobbs, who appeared to be the last man - the defender escaped even a caution from a lenient Halsey.
Uncharacteristically, however, Tevez missed from the spot, aping Gallagher in sending the ball down the middle only to see it come back off the outstretched leg of Weale.
Johnson should also have netted, scuffing weakly at Weale two minutes later, as Leicester sensed the tide turning in their direction.
And the Foxes set up a grandstand finish when, after an accidental and bizarre give-and-go between Japan midfielder Abe and referee Halsey, Dyer just about stayed onside and drove a low finish past Hart to make it 3-2 with seven minutes left.
Leicester needed to pile men forward, with big defender Sol Bamba - who scored against City in the first leg with his first touch in English football - thrown up front as an auxiliary striker.
That left gaping holes at the back, though, and it was appropriate that it should be Bamba who gave the ball away in the opposition penalty area when the hosts broke forward. That gave Kolarov the opportunity to fire City into the next round, and he finished the job with his famed left foot.
Reda Maher / Eurosport