MANCHESTER CITY 2-1 WATFORD: Pep Guardiola’s team strolled to a comfortable Carabao Cup victory against Championship Watford, despite Tom Ince’s 86th-minute goal making it a tight finish.
After the drama of Sunday, which was like Bridgerton and Sherwood combined, Manchester City needed a simple win.
City are still calculating the cost of Sunday’s pyrotechnics with Arsenal, and Pep Guardiola announced before kickoff last night that vital midfielder Rodri will be sidelined for an extended amount of time due to a knee injury. City required an easy encounter, especially because this contest began only 49 hours after John Stones’ 98th-minute equalizer, and they got it.
They declined the opportunity to play at Vicarage Road, and their risk paid off as Guardiola’s much-changed team proved too powerful for Watford. Watford did score a goal four minutes later through Tom Ince to make the tie more competitive, but it was insufficient to change the outcome.
Watford manager Tom Cleverley prioritised Saturday’s Championship clash with Sunderland, making nine changes to neutralise any threat the Hornets could have created. Jeremy Doku, one of just two Arsenal survivors along with Kyle Walker, put City ahead after five minutes.
Doku exhibited no adverse affects from Sunday’s efforts, but Guardiola did replace him with Savinho at halftime after the work was over. By then, City had lead 2-0 when forgotten man Matheus Nunes scored his first Blues goal on his 34th appearance for the club.
Guardiola lauded Cleverley in his programme notes, but his depleted lineup selection wasn’t the ideal method to break the club’s 15-game losing record in this match prior to last night. Suicidal defense doesn’t help, as Watford passed the ball in their own box, allowing City to grab it and score the first goal.
James McAtee snuck in and sent the ball back to Jack Grealish, who squared it for Doku to score right-footed. Guardiola gave Kaden Braithwaite his first start at left-back, making him the club’s third youngest player at 16 years and 229 days old.
Braithwaite was sturdy, and he received an unceremonious start to senior football when Kwadwo Baah knocked him off the ball before scoring, only for the goal to be correctly disallowed for a foul. Normal business was resumed, and City scored their second goal on 38 minutes with some slick play.
Rico Lewis started the play, and he supplied Nunes on the outskirts of the box, who scored with his left foot. Watford showed little, although Vakoun Bayo should have scored in first-half stoppage time from Yasser Larouci’s left-wing cross, which was just six yards away.
With the tie won, it should have been a simple issue of how many goals City would score to demonstrate their supremacy. They came close to scoring a third when Nunes’ attempt was saved by Jonathan Bond and Savinho’s shot was cleared off the line by Tom Ince.
Savinho must have felt cursed when he struck the far post after a lightning break down the right. Bond denied Grealish before Watford struck on 86 minutes when Ince curled a superb left-foot drive into the far corner from the outside of the box, making the scoreline appear flattering.
