Manchester City have cruised into the fourth round of the FA Cup with a thumping 5-0 win over Blackburn in their third-round replay on Wednesday night.
The much-changed City side struggled to create chances in the opening 45 minutes, despite seeing a lot of the ball, but finally went ahead in injury time with an Alvaro Negredo header.
In the second half it was complete dominance for City, with Negredo scoring once more, Edin Dzeko bagging a brace of his own and substitute Sergio Aguero scoring 50 seconds into his return.
Read how the action unfolded with our live text commentary.
Good evening folks. The FA Cup continues tonight with the third-round replay between Manchester City and Blackburn Rovers. The first game ended 1-1 at Ewood Park and now Blackburn get their second attempt at taking the scalp of City. This time it will be much tougher, however.
Tonight's hosts are unbeaten in 15 games in all competitions, which goes back to the Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich. Since then they have beaten the Bavarians in Germany and are scoring for fun at home.
Blackburn, too, are on a good run of form. Their season did not start particularly well but they have now lost just once in their last eight. The City boss Manuel Pellegrini said recently that he is targeting four trophies this year, so we can assume a strong lineup tonight, then.
Speaking of which, let's take a look at who's playing tonight. It's pretty strong from City.
CITY XI: Pantilimon; Richards, Nastasic, Lescott, Clichy; Navas, Garcia, Milner, Fernandinho; Dzeko, Negredo
ROVERS XI: Robinson; Henley, Hanley, Kilgallon, Spurr; Cairney, Lowe, Williamson, Taylor, Marshall; Campbell
It's strong, of course, from City, but that's because with that squad it would be difficult to put out a weak team. This City lineup is without Joe Hart, Pablo Zabaleta, Vincent Kompany, Martin Demichelis, Aleksandar Kolarov, David Silva, Yaya Toure, Samir Nasri and Sergio Aguero. Wow.
It's still an XI that would give most Premier League teams a run for their money. Edin Dzeko has played well in the absence of Aguero and as for Negredo, well he's just a bulldozer. It's eight changes in total for Pellegrini, but he still must be fancying his chances.
As for Blackburn, they too have a couple of key players out. Jordan Rhodes and Scott Dann miss out altogether, with DJ Campbell and Matt Kilgallon coming in for them as direct replacements. Campbell will start in a lone striking role.
City subs: Hart, Zabaleta, Demichelis, Kolarov, Aguero, Huws, Lopes
Blackburn subs: Eastwood, King, Dunn, Olsson, Rochina, Mahoney, Gestede
That first lot is, of course, City and not Blackburn. The good news for City is that Aguero does return to the squad as expected and I would expect him to get some sort of a runout from the bench. They also have a couple of prospects in the bench in Emyr Huws and 18-year-old Marcos Lopes.
Interestingly in the FA Cup there has not been a lot to choose between these two sides. They have played each other on a total of eight occasions, with City claiming three wins and Blackburn two. The 2011 winners will of course be expecting a fourth tonight, but this will be by no means a certainty.
Indeed City have participated in two of the last three finals, with one ending in a win and the other a disappointing defeat. In the 2011 final they saw off Stoke but went down to Wigan last year. This would certainly be a scalp should Blackburn manage a win tonight. Rovers' last win was 1928.
Just to confirm that James Milner is tonight's #mcfc captain. #cityvrovers #facup pic.twitter.com/qRNZKAXI95
— Manchester City FC (@MCFC) January 15, 2014
Apparently both Rhodes and Dann are carrying slight injuries, which is why neither is in the squad tonight. There's very little doubt that Blackburn's chances of winning are much slimmer without them. In the absence of Dann, Hanley will be skipper for them tonight.
ODDS: Blackburn are huge, huge underdogs tonight. According to the bookmakers you'd be insane to back them for this one. If you fancy it, though, you can get 25 times your return - I would advise against it, however. About the best you'll get for City is 1/7, so that's barely worth it either!
If you ask me, and I'm telling you anyway, this will be a comfortable City win. Both sides are weakened but the changes will hurt Blackburn more and I can't see a lot of joy for Gary Bowyer. I'm going for a 3-0 home win.
That, incidentally, is 6/1 if you fancy a bet on that. I'm not taking any responsibility for my prediction, though.
Just a couple of minutes to go until kickoff then. What might make this an interesting night is if Blackburn can manage an early goal or at least stop City scoring for a while. You feel their best hope is keeping things tight and scoring on the break.
KICKOFF: The crowd roar as Blackburn get us underway. The ball is humped straight out of play.
City have seen all of the ball so far. They work a patient move down the left with Milner crossing towards Dzeko, but he gets far too much on the header and it flies over.
Still City doing all the probing, but much of it is back near the half-way line. So far Blackburn have done well to close down the space, but have seen nothing of the ball so far. Here they get a spell of possession, but Marshall is muscled off it by Richards easily.
Navas is in quickly following a poor touch from Hanley, but the defender is back well to win the ball. Blackburn are just seeing a bit more of it at the moment as Campbell looks to play in Marshall, but his space is quickly closed down before he can shoot.
Another half-chance for Dzeko and once more he might wish he'd hit the target. Negredo harries the defence and the ball falls to his strike partner on the edge of the box, but Dzeko slashes his effort well over.
City are just beginning to ramp up the pressure a little, but as Clichy puts in a decent cross from the left there's no blue shirt trying to get on the end of it. Milner has been the best player in these opening 13 minutes.
Good defending from Spurr there, who tracks the run of Richards and win a goal kick from the City full-back. So far neither Robinson nor Pantilimon have been threatened.
Bit of a nervy moment from a corner there for City, as it bobbles around a bit. However, it does not fall for a Blackburn player and eventually is slashed over the bar from outside the box.
Milner is reasonable with his left foot, but the cross he just attempted was merely chipped into the arms of Robinson. There are a lot of red shirts back every time City look to attack and at the moment it's working for them - the hosts are struggling to create.
First threat of Blackburn on the break here. Cairney has Taylor to his left and one through the middle but hangs on too long and in the end is fouled. It's a dangerous area for a free kick, but not as good as the chance they might have had with the right pass.
Marshall catches the free kick well enough, but there was not enough direction on it and it's straight into the big arms of Pantilimon.
Dzeko's through ball to Negredo is well cut out, before Clichy wins a free kick trying to cross on the left. City back on top here but have still created very little. Blackburn will be delighted so far.
BOOKING: First shot on target for City there, as Garcia shoots from 35 yards. It bounces just before Robinson who parries it away. Then there's a yellow for Campbell who slid in and brought down Fernandinho.
It's a training ground move from City as Navas plays it to around 14 yards out for Dzeko, whose volley is slashed miles over the bar. His finishing has been awful so far.
City have a corner now as Navas tries to bundle his way through. In the end Spurr does well enough to get his body in front and then knocks it behind.
Dzeko attempts a one-two with Navas, with the Spaniard attempting a back-heel, but the final pass went nowhere near its intended target. Dzeko shoots again, this time from some 30 yards, but it's the same result - awful.
CLOSE! Fernandinho is doing his best to drive his team forward from a deeper midfield position, but the strikers are not singing from the same teamsheet at the moment. Then it's an absolutely fantastic cross from Navas that both Negredo and Fernandinho are inches away from converting. What a ball.
It's got a little scrappy in the last few minutes, with a number of tackles being made in the middle. No further chances, though, as Garcia puts it out of play looking for Milner.
Wayward effort from Taylor there, following a good chest-down from Campbell. He slashed the ball wide from just outside the box.
Dzeko continues to struggle to get into the game as he's muscled off the ball once more. Then Negredo is played in down the left and his cutback is towards Dzeko but put behind instead. More good positioning from Blackburn.
Late chance here for Blackburn with a free kick. The big men are up...
GOAL! City 1-0 Blackburn (Alvaro Negredo)
It comes to nothing and City break through Fernandinho. His first ball doesn't reach Milner but he gets it back. This time he drives to the byline and picks out Negredo with a brilliant cross - the Spaniard makes no mistake to head low and in. What a time to score.
HALF-TIME: Manchester City 1-0 Blackburn
A late goal for City changes the entire complexion of this tie. Up until that point Blackburn had defended well and had restricted City, but ironically it was they who were hit on the counter from a late free kick. City scarcely deserve it, but Negredo has given them the lead.
Really, Bowyer could not have asked for much more from his team. Without at least two key players the big task was to stop City running riot early on, which they managed until the sucker punch right at the death.
However well Blackburn have played all the probing has certainly been from City. They saw 73% of the ball in that first half - staggering, particularly when you consider that they had only eight shots with two on target. Blackburn managed four, with one on. Not a half for the purists.
It's almost time for the second half. I wouldn't expect any changes yet, although Bowyer might be looking to get Gestede on should it stay level in the next 15 minutes or so. Pellegrini I assume will see how it goes - bring on Aguero if they need a goal or use the youngsters if they score another couple.
SUBS: There is a change, in fact, and surprisingly it's a goalkeeper. Robinson must have picked up a knock because Eastwood is on for him. Also Kolarov is on for Fernandinho - that one is very interesting.
Kolarov has moved across to the left of midfield ahead of Clichy. We're back underway with City keeping it straight away.
GOAL! City 2-0 Blackburn (Alvaro Negredo)
There's an early touch for Eastwood, who clings on well to a Richards cross, however he's shortly picking it out of the net. That is as good an assist as you will see from Kolarov, who drives a curled through ball in front of Negredo from wide left and half-way. The striker clips a wonderful finish over the advancing keeper and I think that's that.
What can Blackburn do to salvage something from this one? They simply have to start attacking now, which of course will mean that they will start to open up at the back. We could be in for an exciting half.
City are very confident in possession now. To be fair, they have been throughout, it has just been the cutting edge that was lacking. Kolarov cuts inside Henley and then looks for Negredo, but it was a poor pass and easily cleared.
City are very quick to get bodies back once they lose the ball, as Taylor found out there. He was passed the ball by Spurr, but looked up to see a wall of blue. They do win a corner, though, as Nastasic puts a cross behind.
Chance for Kolarov, but he couldn't quite get it out from under his feet. Milner found Navas with a fizzed pass, who cut across to the middle for Kolarov, but his shot flies over.
BLACKBURN SUB: Indeed Campbell does come off at the hour mark, but it's Joshua King and not Gestede who is on for him.
Blackburn are still sitting deep instead of opening themselves up at the back. The onus remains on City to create chances, but for now they're happy to patiently wait for their chance.
BOOKING: City skipper Milner goes into the book for pulling down Cairney as Blackburn broke. The advantage was played but Cairney's pass went out of play - it was pulled back and Milner was rightly carded.
CHANCE! Big chance here for the new man King. The ball is put in a very dangerous area from the left and he really should have hit the target with his header, but instead it goes over, perhaps slightly off his shoulder.
CHANCE! Another big chance for King. This time he's played in through the middle and it takes a good stop down low at his near post for Pantilimon to keep out the shot. This is a really good spell from the visitors.
BOOKING: Kolarov is the next player booked for a similar late tackle on Williamson. He can have no complaints and doesn't.
GOAL! City 3-0 Blackburn (Edin Dzeko)
What a brilliant finish from Dzeko! Navas puts in a low cross and from the front-post side of the six-yard box Dzeko fires the ball into the roof of the net on the turn. He's blown some much harder chances tonight.
More patient passing now at the back from City, with very little Blackburn pressure. Aguero is ready to come on as soon as it goes out of play...
CITY SUB: And here he comes. There's a big ovation for both him and the outgoing Negredo, who has been the difference tonight. As if City needed the help of Aguero!
GOAL! City 4-0 Blackburn (Sergio Aguero)
Well that didn't take long! Within a minute Aguero is back among the goals. Fifty second in fact. He collects a low cross, takes one touch to give him a bit of space and then shoots low on the turn past Eastwood.
CITY SUB: On comes youngster Emr Huws. Making way is Richards.
GOAL! City 5-0 Blackburn (Edin Dzeko)
Dzeko nets City's 99th goal of the season and his second on the night. It's another brilliant cross from Navas, who puts it right on the foot of Dzeko at the near post and he makes no mistake.
How many more can City get? They're certainly up for it this half. They smell blood and it's not unlike City to score six this season, of course. This half has been a complete whitewash.
Blackburn to their credit have not let their heads drop. When they do get a rare look at the ball, they have players breaking forward to try to get a chance. They've had absolutely nothing in this half, though.
Aguero is brought down by Hanley on the edge of the box, and this is a great chance for a shot at goal.
CLOSE! What a strike! I can't quite believe that's gone wide as Milner lashes the free kick just past the post. A run-out here for 16-year-old Connor Mahoney, who comes on for Williamson.
Good cross there from the youngster Mahoney, who puts in a low effort from the right that is cleared behind. We will have three added minutes.
The pace City have on the break is breathtaking. Navas and Aguero both come forward at pace, but both chances break down. Not that it matters much.
FULL-TIME! Manchester City 5-0 Blackburn Rovers
So an absolutely thumping win at the Etihad for City sees them move into the fourth round to take on Watford, also at home. There were many changes but the players got the job done in the second half and thoroughly deserved their win.
That's all from me tonight. I'll have analysis from this game up in around half an hour, but please do also stay on site for reports and reaction from today's sport. Until next time it's goodbye from me!
Written by
Matt Domm
Matt Domm
