HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 0, MAN CITY 2
There was a glimpse into the future as Manchester City cruised into the last 16 of the Carabao Cup with a victory at League One club Huddersfield Town more comfortable than the scoreline suggests.
Goals from Phil Foden and Savinho scored City’s goals on a night in which they dominated and enjoyed more than 75% possession with the Terriers failing to register a goal attempt on target.
Of more interest, however, were the debuts handed to three of their young starlets.
Divine Musaka, who was in West Ham’s academy, was handed a starting spot while brothers Jaden and Reigan Heskey, sons of former England striker Emile, made cameos from the bench.
City manager Pep Guardiola was full of praise for the young players who were involved.
“We had six players from the academy who were in the starting line-up which was really cool and good for the club,” he said.
“There was also Jaden and Reigan Heskey who were involved.”
Guardiola praised his side’s defensive display describing it as “really good”. He pointed out they restricted the Terriers to one chance in the 89th minute.
His only complaint was that his side failed to score their second goal sooner.
“I would have liked to have scored the second goal sooner so I could have off Phil and Nico [O’Reilly] as they played a tough game at Arsenal three days earlier,” Guardiola added.
There was praise from Guardiola for Huddersfield as he described it as a “tricky” tie.
“They played a really good and were solid and they played with spirit,” he said.
Terriers’ head coach Lee Grant took positives from the defeat.
He said: “I am super proud of the group as a collective. Nobody was left out there on their own and they all fought for one another.
“The amount of work and discipline to come away with a 2-0 defeat was mammoth.
Embed from Getty Images“We worked hard and showed togetherness, discipline and resilience to keep going when they hide the ball from you for long periods.”
While acknowledging City deserved to win, Grant was pleased that his side carved out several goalscoring chances of their own.
City made nine changes from the side that started at Arsenal on Sunday with only Foden and O’Reilly retaining their places.
There was a debut for 18-year-old Musaka who acquitted himself well after stepping up to the senior side.
City’s bench was a mix of experience and youth, the likes of Gianluigi Donnarumma, Ruben Dias, Tijjani Reijnders, Bernardo Silva and Kalvin Phillips providing a wealth of games while the youth came from the Heskey brothers, Kaden Braithwaite and Steven-Nevin Mfuni.
Grant also rang the changes with seven from the side which drew 0-0 with Burton on Saturday.
Zepiqueno Redmond made his first start for the Terriers.
City enjoyed plenty of early possession but did little with it until they took a 19th minute lead.
Oscar Bobb and Matheus Nunes started the move before Foden played a return pass with Musaka and fired home a low drive from 20 yards for his second goal of the season.
City enjoyed a massive 81.9% per-cent possession in the opening half, but managed only five goal attempts, including two on target
O’Reilly almost doubled the lead soon after the restart when he was put clear by Nico Gonazales, but keeper Lee Nicholls stayed big to make a crucial block.
City finally made their possession count when they doubled their lead in the 75th minute.
Foden provided the assist with a lay-off to Savinho whose fiercely struck angled effort went in off the crossbar.
City then made two changes as Foden and O’Reilly made way for Reijnders and Jaden Heskey who was handed his senior debut with 14 minutes left.
There were another two late changes as Nico Gonzales and Savinho were replaced by Phillips and Reigan Heskey, the latter also making his competitive debut for the first team.
Huddersfield almost halved the deficit with their first cleat-cut chance in the 88th minute.
Substitute Cameron Ashia cut in from the left and bent a shot from 20 yards which struck the inside of the upright and rebounded to safety.
The final statistics told the story of the match as City enjoyed 75.4% possession and had 17 goal attempts to the hosts’ five with seven on target to none from the Terriers.