Manchester City 7 Sheffield Wednesday 0, Capital One Cup: Manuel Pellegrini's side stroll into fourth round
Manuel Pellegrini's side stroll into fourth round following seven-goal rout at the Etihad Stadium
By Mark Ogden, Northern Football Correspondent, Etihad Stadium
Frank Lampard was supposed to offer no more than experienced cover at Manchester City, but his loan move to the Etihad Stadium is developing into the fairytale of the New Yorker.
A crucial equalising goal against Chelsea at the weekend and now two in a seven-goal Capital One Cup rout of Sheffield Wednesday, which was capped by a young supporter running on to the pitch to pose for a selfie with the former England midfielder.
Not bad for starters for the 36-year-old, whose loan from New York City FC is due to expire at the beginning of February. But Manuel Pellegrini, the City manager, admitted after this third-round tie that Lampard may yet stick around at the Etihad Stadium for the remainder of the season if he continues to impress.
Such a move may not be too well received in Manhattan and in the Fifth Avenue offices of Major League Soccer but, with both clubs owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, Lampard’s situation is clearly a complex one and it may have to wait longer than expected to become an Englishman in New York. “We will do what is best for the team and the player,” Pellegrini said.
“We must talk about a lot of things, but it is not impossible for him to stay here. It is an issue that we will see further down the line. We will see what happens in January and we have two or three months to decide. He is a very important player for our team and maybe, at 36, he cannot play three games in a row. But Frank is a top player.”
Wherever Lampard plies his trade in the new year, he is proving that he will contribute more than a famous name and pedigree to the team for which he plays. Prior to Lampard’s opener in this game, Wednesday had frustrated the Premier League champions in an evenly fought first half. But with the veteran one of City’s few impressive performers in the opening period, it was apt that he scored the first goal to set the home side on their way to victory.
With the Capital One Cup final on March 1 and Lampard due back in the United States for the start of the MLS season two weeks later, there may yet be a temptation on the player’s part to pursue a third winner’s medal in the competition should City progress to the latter stages.
Whether New York City would be prepared to accommodate Lampard’s desire to remain in Manchester is another matter but, if the midfielder sustains this form, Pellegrini would be foolish to allow him to leave.
The City manager had gone into the game emphasising the need to rotate his squad, with the club entering a taxing period of seven games in 21 days, but the Chilean selected a surprisingly strong starting XI to face Championship opponents.
Willy Caballero, City’s Argentine goalkeeper, was the only player on the home side not to have represented his country, with Pellegrini packing his team with the seasoned experience of Yaya Touré, Lampard and many of last season’s title-winning squad. Youngsters such as Dedryck Boyata, Jose Angel Pozo and Sinan Bytyqi were overlooked and named on the bench, but despite the formidable strength of City’s XI, Wednesday were neither overawed nor overpowered in the first half.
In sixth place in the Championship, pursuing a return to the top flight for the first time since relegation in 2000, Wednesday displayed energy and tenacity as they met the challenge of facing the champions head on in the early stages. But for poor finishing by centre-forward Gary Madine, Stuart Gray’s team should have taken the lead as early as the seventh minute.
Madine, the archetypal lower-league journeyman, possessed the brawn to trouble Martin Demichelis and Eliaquim Mangala, but he lacked the finishing touch and only he will know how he failed to trouble Caballero with a free header from Jacques Maghoma’s pinpoint cross – a chance wasted. But Wednesday continued to test City, with Maghoma, Stevie May and Liam Palmer enjoying more of the ball than their direct opponents.
Only Lampard and James Milner displayed anything like the commitment and desire required for City, who only created sporadic chances in the opening period. Milner had a close-range shot saved by Chris Kirkland, while Mangala rattled the post with a left-foot volley from Aleksandar Kolarov’s corner. Other than a tame Dzeko header, easily saved by Kirkland, City failed to go close to opening the scoring before the interval.
It all changed after half-time, however, with Lampard scoring on 47 minutes after being teed up by Jesús Navas’s near-post cross. From that point on, Wednesday found themselves washed away by a blue tide, with Dzeko making it 2-0 six minutes later, again from a Navas assist.
The Spain winger then scored a third with a strike that beat Kirkland after initially hitting the bar, before Touré scored with a penalty after Kamil Zayatte was dismissed by referee Paul Tierney for a foul on Lampard. Dzeko made it 5-0 on 77 minutes before the teenager Pozo scored a debut goal in the 90th minute. Lampard then made it 7-0 three minutes into stoppage time.
“We had a mad nine-minute period when they scored three and showed the gulf in class between the Premier League and Championship,” Gray said. “We were punished for things we would not be punished for in the Championship. We were playing against world-class players, but we are back to our bread-and-butter at the weekend against Cardiff.”
