LONDON – Manchester City dumped their former manager Sven Goran Eriksson out of the FA Cup as the Premier League side beat Leicester 4-2 in a third round replay at Eastlands on Tuesday. Joining City in the fourth round were fellow Premier League sides Wolves, who defeated Doncaster 5-0, and Stoke, who beat Cardiff 2-0 after extra time.
Eriksson was sacked by City in 2008 after just one season in charge, but goals from Carlos Tevez, Patrick Vieira, Adam Johnson and Aleksandar Kolarov ensured there would be no revenge for the ex-England coach.
City chief Roberto Mancini, who played under Eriksson at Sampdoria, saw his team pegged back by the Championship side when Paul Gallagher cancelled out Tevez’s opener before they cruised through to a fourth round tie against Notts County.
City captain Tevez maintained his fine form this season as he dodged two weak tackles and smashed a superb strike into the top corner in the 15th minute. Leicester were level just four minutes later when Patrick Vieira tripped Lloyd Dyer in the penalty area and Gallagher drove in the resulting spot-kick.
But French midfielder Vieira made amends for that mistake in the 37th minute when he stabbed in from close-range.
Just 80 seconds later Johnson put Mancini’s team in complete control when the England winger timed his run to beat the offside trap and slotted past the exposed Weale. Tevez wasted a chance to bag his second goal midway through the second half when his penalty was saved by Weale. Dyer scored in the 83rd minute to give Leicester hope but Kolarov’s first City goal sealed the win in stoppage time. Mancini was unhappy with his defence and said: “We must improve. We have conceded a lot of goals in the last three games, so we must be sure to work hard.”
Eriksson added: “We were in the game for 90 minutes at home, and 87 here, and that’s good. “They have some better players than us, but I think we need to be proud. We have shown in these two games we can play good football and stand up to physically strong teams.” At Molineux, it took Wolves just five minutes to open the scoring in their third round replay as Steven Fletcher fired home from Stephen Hunt’s cross.
Mick McCarthy’s side finished off their Championship opponents with two goals in quick succession in the second half.
Belgian midfielder Geoffrey Mujangi Bia netted his first goal for Wolves in the 61st minute when he converted Kevin Doyle’s cross and the provider turned goal-scorer five minutes later as Doyle curled home a fine effort. Matt Jarvis bagged the fourth goal in the 74th minute and David Jones blasted in the fifth to leave Doncaster shattered. In south Wales, Stoke needed extra-time before beating Championship promotion chasers Cardiff. Stoke boss Tony Pulis made 10 changes from the team that beat Bolton on Saturday and it showed as his reserves struggled to find any rhythm. They finally edged ahead in the 92nd minute when Jon Walters headed in Michael Tonge’s corner to set up a fourth round clash with Wolves. Walters sealed the victory with his second goal in the 115th minute.
