FA Cup Sunday: Manchester City, Stoke Progress To Semi-Finals

Not surprisingly City have looked less dangerous since the substitution. While the home side has certainly generated a number of chances in the match, most of them have come from the wide players stretching the play on the break. They’re finding it very difficult to break down Reading once their defence has been set, despite something of a makeshift back line from the Championship side. Edin Dzeko and Mario Balotelli are warming up, which is a little bit ominous.

The second half is underway, with no changes to either side, and almost immediately Jay Tabb saves a goal for Reading, the right back in just the right place after a very good (finally) Aleksander Kolarov corner, won by Shaun Wright-Phillips, is flicked towards the far corner by Shane Long, who I imagine probably didn’t mean to do that. Long issued profuse apologies and thanks to his teammate for bailing him out of an own goal.

The Royals are defending well, but their attacking play has been so poor they might be better off just sitting int heir own half. They’ve had several opportunities to break up the pitch, but their passing has been terrible and all of their forays into the City half have resulted in swift counterattacks from the hosts. Jobi McAnuff in particular has been a total liability in midfield, giving the ball away countless times when Reading were in promising positions. He’ll need to be much better if the visitors are going to sneak in a goal today, which admittedly doesn’t seem particularly likely.

That was the cue, apparently, for the match to turn into an enterprising, open affair, with the ball going back and forth as though it was a tennis match. The hosts are probably edging it now, on account of getting the ball into shooting positions whereas Reading aren’t quite getting there, and now they have a free kick from a dangerous situation. Kolarov stands over the ball and blasts it over. Waste.

Obviously, there’s not much going on in the actual game as of yet, neither side looking particularly inventive in possession. Any momentum that might have started to build was rather dashed by that injury to Hunt, who’s now back on the pitch and earning a free kick from Kompany (this might turn into an interesting story line: Those two don’t look like best friends) that eventually turns into a Reading corner, from which City left back Aleksander Kolarov gets himself elbowed in the face.

Not a pretty game so far!

Substitutes: Mikkel Andersen, Andy Griffin, Michail Antonio, Simon Church, Hal Robson-Kanu, Brian Howard, Jake Taylor.

That’s a perfect draw for the neutral, guaranteeing that only one of the two strongest sides remaining in the contest will make it through to the final. Assuming City manage to get through against Reading (by no means a guarantee), they’ll play arch-enemies United in an eye-watering tie, while Bolton’s clash against Stoke City will see Owen Coyle’s slick passers take on Tony Pullis’… throwing people for a place in the final - and a place in the Europa League. Excellent.

The matches will be played on the weekend of April 16th.

That effect was wiped away just after the hour mark with Danny Higginbotham blasted home a free kick from 21-yards out. The left-footed rocket was aided by a deflection off Scott Parker’s foot, the resulting ball going through a hole in the ball before deflecting off Robert Green’s hands and in. Stoke was up 2-1.

Some late heroics from Thomas Sorensen and the woodwork preserved the Potters’ lead, a just result in a match made unnecessarily controversial by Jones’s bad day. Still, Stoke is on to Wembley, eliminating West Ham from the FA Cup, advancing to the semifinals.

Justice, however, may have been done when Robert Green saved the try. The West Ham keeper guessed correctly, diving left, and bet a poor chance by Etherington. The winger’s left-footed shot was placed a few feet right of Green’s starting position, the ball only three feet off the ground. It was a relatively easy save for Green, who may have been lucky for to have dived beyond the unexpectedly poor shot.

During such a controversial play it was easy to lose track of what Huth had done, particularly since he had altruistic motives (prevent the goal). Still, it was a very reckless play. Piquionne was standing upright, on the goal line, waiting to see if the ball was going to fall short of a goal. Huth was desperate and leaped, but desperation is no excuse for putting another player’s health at risk. It was, at a minimum, a yellow card offense.

The Delap throw came from the left flank, only two yards from touch. The Stoke midfielder threw the ball to the edge of the six, in the middle of the area, where his cross was met by an oncoming Huth. The big Potters defender was unmarked, and no Hammers defenders got off their feet to challenge the ball. Robert Green stayed on his line, allowing the German an uncontested shot on goal. The header went down, bounced up and into goal, giving Tony Pulis’s side the lead.

Th goal comes at the end of an opening segment that’s seen Stoke generate the only chances. Jermaine Pennant has been able to put in two dangerous crosses from the right, while Delap had one other throw from the left that nearly led to an earlier Huth goal.

SB Nation Soccer will be providing live updates of today’s matches in this space, with the semifinal pairings set to be announced at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.