Around 90 minutes before kick-off, Manchester City’s regal royal blue bus pulled up outside the Vitality Stadium. As the coach disgorged its cargo of superstars, the fans gathered by the main entrance stared at the photographs of all City’s gleaming golden trophies that were emblazoned on the side.
Many believed that was the only glimpse of a prize City fans were going to get this season. In this year of their defrocking, they are already out of the Champions League, the Premier League title is out of reach and Newcastle won the Carabao Cup. It was down to Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth to put City’s season out of its misery.
That would have fitted the narrative of this season’s FA Cup, too, where the first three semi-finalists – Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa – had either never won the competition or had been waiting for more than 60 years since they last triumphed in the final. This has been branded the year of the underdog, the year of the throwback.
A City victory here in the sunshine on the south coast did not fit that narrative. They were supposed to there for the taking at the stadium here where defeat in early November was the cue for an astonishing collapse that stripped away the aura of invincibility they had built up so painstakingly.
But City refused to abide by that narrative, even when Erling Haaland saw a first half penalty saved, even when they went a goal down to an Evanilson poacher’s goal before the interval, even when Haaland was forced off with an injury early in the second half after he had drawn City level.
Urged on by Pep Guardiola, who has rarely looked so animated on the touchline, kicking every ball, micro-managing every minute, gesticulating, gesturing, being booked for dissent, going through agonies of frustration and despair and hope, City scratched around in the embers of their old glories and found a spark.
Manchester City came from behind to win 2-1 at Bournemouth in the FA Cup on Sunday
Both of City’s goals came in the second half courtesy of assists by Nico O’Reilly (second left)
Erling Haaland (second left) failed to convert an early penalty kick at the Vitality Stadium
It came in a winner from Haaland’s replacement, Omar Marmoush, and a mistake by Bournemouth goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga and when the final whistle went, City had won 2-1 and their fans were singing about heading to Wembley for a semi-final against Forest and Guardiola was clenching his fists with a kind of intensity that suggested this win had meant the world to him.
City had started uncertainly. There is a fine line between being technically assured as you play the ball out from the back and complacent. City – and Ederson in particular – strayed dangerously close to complacency. One drag-back turn in his own six-yard box, as Evanilson closed him down, felt reckless.
But City survived and began to prosper. Haaland should have scored when Illia Zabarnyi allowed a cross from Matheus Nunes to float over his head but Haaland steered his header wide of the goalkeeper’s right-hand post.
Worse was to come for the Norway striker. City were awarded a penalty when Bernardo Silva flicked the ball up and it hit the arm of Tyler Adams inside the box in the 12th minute. Haaland tried to whip the spot kick across his body but he did not hit it cleanly and it was not in the corner. Arrizabalaga got down well to save it but he did not have to excel.
Haaland has now missed three of his last six penalties but a minute later, he had a chance to atone. He wasted it. He burst clean through on the left and as Arrizabalaga ran out to meet him, Haaland lifted the ball over him but instead of sailing gently into the net, it drifted over the bar.
After so much profligacy, it felt inevitable that City would be punished for it. It did not take long. Nunes started the move by giving away possession with a careless crossfield pass deep in his own half, the kind of sloppy mistake City never used to make.
When David Brooks curled a brilliant cross to the back post, Justin Kluivert forced his way in front of Nunes and prodded the ball across goal where Evanilson rushed in to apply the finishing touch.
City tried to fight back but age has robbed them of some of the brio that used to infuse their play. Roy Keane observed that they were ‘strolling’ around as they searched for an equaliser but increasingly that is just the speed that men such as Kevin de Bruyne, who once were kings, operate at.
Bournemouth went 1-0 up on 21 minutes when Brazilian striker Evanilson (left) bundled home
Haaland atoned for his penalty miss by equalising for City early in the second half on Sunday
No 7 Omar Marmoush, who was subbed on after Haaland suffered an injury, scored the winner
One player not operating at that speed was Nico O’Reilly, who came on as a half-time substitute for Abdukodir Khusanov. The second half was only three minutes old when O’Reilly sprinted away down the left wing and slid a perfect cross into the path of Haaland.
Even the Vitality Stadium version of Haaland could not miss this time and he rammed the ball into the back of the net. It was his 30th goal of the season, another milestone for a remarkable striker.
His strange day was not over, though. Ten minutes after his goal, he fell awkwardly under a challenge from Lewis Cook and crashed into the advertising hoardings. It was less the collision with the boards that hurt him and more the way his ankle seemed to be caught under Cook’s weight. Haaland tried to play on but could not.
He was replaced by Omar Marmoush. Two minutes later, Antoine Semenyo slipped on the edge of the Bournemouth box, O’Reilly stole the ball away and played a neat reverse pass to Marmoush for his first touch. Marmoush’s shot was tame but somehow, Arrizabalaga allowed it to squirm through his dive and into the net.
City nearly extended their lead with eight minutes to go. Jack Grealish, who had produced a typically entertaining cameo as a substitute, drew Bournemouth defenders to him and then slipped a ball to Ilkay Gundogan. Gundogan’s shot seemed destined for goal but bounced off the foot of Arrizabalaga’s left hand post.
There was no way back for the hosts. City may be wounded but there is life in their season still.
