Report | Swansea City 1 Manchester City 3
Omar Marmoush and Rayan Cherki broke Swansea City hearts as their late strikes gave Manchester City a place in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals despite a terrific display from the hosts at the Swansea.com Stadium.
Alan Sheehan’s side had stunned Pep Guardiola’s star-studded visitors when Goncalo Franco swept home a superb finish at the end of a flowing team move in just the 12th minute.
Swansea continued to threaten and could have doubled their lead through Melker Widell, before Jeremy Doku’s deflected strike brought City level at the break.
The Swans then had to weather sustained pressure during the second period but were closing in on taking the tie to penalties, until Marmoush’s rasping effort gave the Premier League visitors the lead and Cherki steered home the clincher in stopppage time.
But there was so much for Sheehan and his side to take from an excellent showing which combined sheer grit and bloody-mindedness with no little quality.
The likes of Kaelan Casey and Ishe Samuels-Smith belied their respective ages with outstanding individual displays, while Ethan Galbraith exemplified Swansea’s tireless work ethic in the middle of the park.
The Swans had made six changes from the win over Norwich City as Andy Fisher, Casey, Samuels-Smith, Widell, Zeidane Inoussa and Adam Idah came into the side.
City, meanwhile, had made 10 changes from their loss to Aston Villa at the weekend.
The Swans started the evening as firm underdogs against a City side who have dominated the domestic landscape for much of the last decade.
But they started brightly, aggressive in the press and with Inoussa’s surge down the touchline getting the crowd off its feet.
Casey made an excellent intervention after Marmoush had raced onto a bouncing ball to get into the Swansea box.
But the Swans took the lead with a brilliant goal from Franco.
The hosts swept the ball to Josh Key, who stepped inside his marker to lay off to the Portuguese, who dispatched an unerring effort into the top corner from 20 yards, leaving James Trafford with no chance.
The roof nearly came off the Swansea.com Stadium as the ball round the net, and when Casey cleared the ball from the next City attack that too was cheered to the rafters.
The visitors began to dominate possession, but the 25-minute mark came and went without Fisher having had a save of note to make.
Their best opening came when Cherki skipped into the Swansea area and rolled an inviting ball across the face of the box that Doku could not reach to finish.
The hosts then spurned a massive chance to make it 2-0. Widell read a woefully bad pass from Rico Lewis and was in on goal, but saw Trafford get fingertips to his low left-footed effort.
At the other end, Cherki prodded the ball against a post after Oscar Bobb had tricked his way down the right flank before squaring.
But City did level when Doku’s pace beat the offside trap and he was able to cut inside and find the far net via a fortunate deflection off Swans skipper Cameron Burgess.
Casey cleared a driven Marmoush effort off the line as City continued to press with half-time fast approaching.
Casey intervened again early in the second half, getting across to rob Cherki as he threatened to reach a Marmoush pass after slick build-up.
The Swansea were having to defend manfully, and were relieved to see Divine Mukasa fail to pick out arriving black City shirts at the far post after patient, intricate play from the visitors.
Sheehan sent on Zan Vipotnik and Ronald in place of Idah and Inoussa respectively, while Guardiola called for Josko Gvardiol, John Stones and Phil Foden.
Nico Gonzalez blazed over after a driving run from midfield while Gvardiol headed a corner wide as Swansea reached the final 20 minutes on level terms and tantalizingly close to a quarter-final place.
Fisher then denied the Croatian as he held his awkward shot at the second attempt.
But there was nothing the keeper could do when Marmoush was fed in down the side of the area to thunder an unstoppable rising strike into the roof of the net.
Swansea City: Andy Fisher; Josh Key, Kaelan Casey, Cameron Burgess (captain), Ishe Samuels-Smith (Liam Cullen 83); Ethan Galbraith, Goncalo Franco (Jay Fulton 69), Melker Widell (Manuel Benson 69); Zeidane Inoussa (Ronald 59), Josh Tymon; Adam Idah (Zan Vipotnik 59).
Unused Substitutes: Paul Farman, Ben Cabango, Jisung Eom, Ricardo Santos.
Manchester City: James Trafford, Nathan Ake (captain), Omar Marmoush, Rayan Cherki, Jeremy Doku, Nico Gonzalez, Rayan Ait-Nouri (Josko Gvardiol 63), Abdukodir Khusanov (John Stones 63), Oscar Bobb, Divine Mukasa (Phil Foden 63), Rico Lewis.
Unused Substitutes: Marcus Bettinelli, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Savinho, Matheus Nunes, Nico O'Reilly, Kalvin Phillips.
Referee: Jarred Gillett
Attendance: 20,490