Swansea City 1-3 Manchester City: 5 Talking points as two quick-fire goals in the second half see City move into quarter-finals | FA Cup 2020-21
Manchester City recorded a 3-1 win in their FA Cup fixture against Swansea City tonight at the Liberty Stadium. Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus added two goals within five minutes after the restart to triple City's lead, who'd opened the scoring in the 30th minute via Kyle Walker's cross that went straight in.
The hosts pulled one back in the 77th minute from Morgan Whittaker's well-taken strike, having not recorded a single shot on goal till that point. Though Pep Guardiola rested a few of his regular starters for the cup tie, the result was the same for the Cityzens.
They quickly took control of the game and had a couple of sights on goal in the early stages of the game. Freddie Woodman was alert to thwart some of Jesus' early attempts. Walker's goal brought some life into the game as the hosts also responded instantly, only for Jay Fulton to head an attempt just over the bar.
City got the second half off to a wonderful start, and went 2-0 up just 74 seconds after the restart. Jesus added another goal in the 50th minute to end Swansea's comeback hopes.
As City continue their fine run of form across all competitions, here we take a look at the five major talking points from the game.
#5 Manchester City's dominance at both ends of the pitch helped secure an easy win
The stats from the game aptly tell the story and just how good Manchester City were tonight. They were the better side across all metrics in the game and, with their 74% possession, dominated the proceedings from the get-go.
They managed 17 shots against the hosts and seven of them were on target. Swansea could only manage six shots against Guardiola's men and scored from their only shot on target.
They completed 777 passes with 94% accuracy, as opposed to 274 passes with 74% accuracy for the hosts. They kept Swansea's attackers at bay for the majority of the game while making the most of the chances afforded to them, which was key to their victory.
#4 Two quick-fire goals early in the second half decided the fate of the game
The visitors had a narrow one-goal lead heading into the second half and the game was still very much open at this point in time. Swansea came close to making the net bulge twice in the final stages of the first half, so there was still hope for a comeback for the hosts.
Well, it just took them 74 seconds to double their lead through Sterling after the game resumed when he capitalized on some lackluster defending from the Swansea to guide the ball into the bottom-right corner.
Even before the hosts could recover from this early blow, Jesus added the third goal for City. He controlled the cross from Bernardo Silva beautifully in the box. This goal proved to be the final nail in the coffin for Swansea, who could only score a late consolation goal in the 77th minute.
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