For eight minutes, it threatened to be perhaps the most ignominious day of a managerial career that has produced three Champions Leagues, 12 domestic league titles and a couple of FA Cups. Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City were losing at home to Plymouth Argyle: the conquerors of Liverpool, admittedly, but the side with the worst defensive record in the country, a team with no away wins in the Championship but, improbable as it appeared, a lead at the Etihad Stadium.
If an improbable script reflected the FA Cup’s enduring ability to surprise, it was also a reflection of the modern Manchester City; more frail and fragile. Even victory brought a hint of the unlikely. City’s rescuer was not Erling Haaland, sent on after an hour, but Nico O’Reilly, a teenage Mancunian who started the night with one senior goal and trebled his tally. “Two goals, I wasn’t expecting it,” he said. Playing out of position, he cast Plymouth’s giantkillers out of the FA Cup.
