Manchester City have breezed through to the FA Youth Cup quarter-final with a 5-0 win against Fleetwood - with Justin Oboavwoduo grabbing himself a hat-trick to cap off a five-star display.
After overcoming Blackburn and Brighton on their way to the last-16 stage, City rarely had to go through the gears on Tuesday night as they continued their quest for a fourth ever success in this competition. Goals from Oboavwoduo (3), Matthew Whittingham and Will Dickson settled the scores.
City will take on Oxford or Leeds in the last-eight with those two sides getting down to business on Wednesday night. Either way, the Under-18s will once again boast home advantage at the Academy Stadium.
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Despite coasting throughout the opening 45 minutes, City needed their goalkeeper to produce an important moment shortly after Oboavwoduo had made it 1-0 with his near-post finish after six minutes. Fleetwood had chance to level things up from the penalty spot when Tomas Galvez brought down his opponent.
However, the lead was preserved as George Murray-Jones saved from 12 yards.
At the other end, City pushed and probed for a second and dominated possession. After surviving that scare, they soon had another reward when Whittingham fired home an unstoppable strike from inside the box after Joel Ndala recovered possession in trademark City style.
It was 3-0 shortly upon the restart as Dickson - the promising striker learning from Erling Haaland and copying Cristiano Ronaldo - tucked into the net when presented with an open goal to maintain his record of scoring in every round in the competition this campaign. Ndala had a hand in that one, too.
As the clock ticked on, Ndala cut inside and hit the post before picking up the rebound and rolling the ball to Oboavwoduo who doubled his tally for the evening. Ndala did everything but score - although he did see one effort ruled out for offside - as he ran their hat-trick hero close for man-of-the-match.
Oboavwoduo completed his treble and earned his right to the match-ball in the dying embers.
City have won the FA Youth Cup three times in their history with the most-recent success coming during the 2019/2020 season. Manchester United are the current holders after Alejandro Garnacho led them to the trophy with victory over Middlesbrough in the showpiece last season.
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