Goals from Jeremy Doku and Matheus Nunes see off Hornets
Manchester City defeated Watford 2-1 on Tuesday evening in the third round of the Carabao Cup with goals from Jeremy Doku and Matheus Nunes, who scored his first goal for City on the night. The game occurred just over 48 hours after City had gone through a gruelling battle with Arsenal which involved late drama – as well as an unfortunate knee injury for star player Rodri who is suspected to be out for some time.
Guardiola fielded a relatively young team, with players such as James Mcatee, Nico O’Reilly, and 16-year-old debutant Kaden Braithwaite. Big names involved in the Arsenal clash such as Ederson, Haaland, Silva and Gundogan did not feature in this match for the blues.
Despite Guardiola’s changes, the blues made a fast start and scored after just 4 minutes. Mcatee nicked the ball in the area after a misjudged pass in the Watford defence and passed to Grealish who then threaded the ball through to Doku who slot it comfortably in the bottom left corner to make it 1-0 City and give the blues an early lead, a bright start to City’s 24/25 domestic cup campaign.
While Watford have been on the end of many large scorelines at the hands of City, tonight was different and the hornets showed some threat in attack, testing the City defence. Striker Kwadwo Baah powered through on goal and struck the ball into the net for Watford but the goal was immediately disallowed and some may label it in a controversial fashion, after Baah was judged to have fouled Braithwaite. Although no appeal was made at the time, Baah later said that he felt the contact ‘was shoulder to should’ and that he ‘could not see how it was a foul’.
Despite Watford’s continued momentum, the blues eventually hit back and gained a 2 goal cushion after Matheus Nunes’ strike nestled in to the bottom corner once again following some clever passing play from Rico Lewis and Mcatee.
The second half saw Savinho come on for Doku, who once again was ambitiously looking to score his first goal for City. After a move in from the right hand side a shot from Savinho hit the post, another shot from distance was saved by Watford goalkeeper Jonathan Bond, once again frustrating Savinho who remained yet to score his first goal in a City shirt.
For the vast majority of the second half, the blues looked comfortable in possession with occasional efforts on goal. It seemed now that they would surely be heading safely into the fourth round, but this feeling of security changed in the 86th minute when a shot from outside of the box from Watford’s Tom Ince found the back of the net and brought the game back to life for the final minutes. This was yet another instance of City conceding the first shot on target in the match.
The final moments and injury time saw increased Watford efforts on goal to try and find a leveller and take the game to a penalty shootout, but their efforts were in vain as the City defence and midfield made sure that this was not the case and the game finished 2-1.
The result was already an improvement on last season’s league cup campaign for City, when they lost 1-0 away to Newcastle United. Despite the loss, Watford will feel proud of their efforts, holding their own, keeping the scoreline respectable, and wondering what might have been had Baah’s goal not been disallowed.