The Manchester City team celebrating after the Riyad Mahrez goal in the 60th minute

Manchester City through to the quarter final of the FA Cup after 2-0 victory over Peterborough.

  • Man City defeat Peterborough 2-0 with goals from Jack Grealish and Riyad Mahrez.

  • Zinchenko captains the side for the first time in his career.

Man City lined up with 4 changes from their previous FA Cup match against Fulham. Zack Steffen is out due to a shoulder injury so Ederson, the 1st choice keeper, stepped in.

With Kyle walker suspended, Zinchenko made an appearance at left back whilst Cancelo went back to right back. John Stones was benched for Ruben Dias, however he did replace him at 45 minutes. Kevin De Bruyne also dropped to the bench for the first time in 8 games as he was replaced by Gabriel Jesus.

Phil Foden dropped into midfield after playing in the front three all season, he played an unfamiliar role this game in the midfield three with Fernandinho and Gundogan.

Peterborough made 5 changes to their previous FA Cup tie against QPR. Mark Beevers was swapped out for Josh Knight in the back three of the team. Ollie Norburn and Bali Mumba were benched for Jorge Grant and Hayden Coulson in the midfield four.

There were also two changes up front, their leadscorer of last season, Jonson Clarke-Harris was benched for 19-year-old Ricky Jade Jones in the centre of their attack. Sammie Szmodics replaced Jack Marriot on the left wing.

Peterboroughs last win was against QPR in the FA Cup on the 5th of February with no wins in the league since the 11th of December leaving them bottom of the championship. Manchester City are coming off of a win against Everton on the weekend, and their last FA Cup tie was a 4-1 victory over Fulham.

The first half had signs of Peterborough using Jones’ pace to break through City’s defence where they were lacking pace with the absence of Kyle Walker. However, the attacks came to nothing as the game ended 0-0 at half time with no side challenging the goal.

As both sides came out for the second half, Manchester City made 2 changes: Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake benched for John Stones and Aymeric Laporte.

Peterborough came out for the second half with intent not letting Man City attack by taking the ball off of them and counter attacking with pace. Unfortunately, this didn’t last as in the 60th minute, Riyad Mahrez pushed down the wing and into the box, cut onto his left foot and drilled it into the bottom right corner of the net.

With Phil Foden playing a more midfield role, he wasn’t able to push into the Peterborough penalty box which is what he has been doing all season to get his goals and assists. He received the ball within the Manchester City half and pinged it into Grealish’s path and he controlled it and slid it past Benda in the goal.

The rest of the game consisted of Manchester City dominating possession as they pushed for a third goal. They came close with a Laporte tap in yards away from the keeper, however he missed the goal by inches.

The game ended 2-0 to the Premier League leaders with Peterboroughs Kwame Poku receiving Man of the Match for his performance despite the loss.

The quarter final draw will be done at 7:45 on Thursday the 3rd of March.