Manchester City defeated Leicester in the FA Cup third round replay at Eastlands - but Blues fans were given another scare by the Foxes.
Goals from Carlos Tevez, Patrick Vieira, Adam Johnson and Aleks Kolarov ensured the Blue set up a trip to Notts County in the next round.
The Blues were ahead after just 15 minutes when in-form Tevez struck his 16th goal of the season, but when Vieira was adjudged to have fouled Lloyd Dyer, Paul Gallagher levelled from the spot.
Vieira and Johnson struck in quick succession just before the break before Tevez blasted a second-half penalty straight at Chris Weale.
Dyer struck late on to give City another uncomfortable finish - following on from Saturday's 4-3 win over Wolves - but Kolarov's first goal for the Blues ensured their progress.
Once again this tie, with all its redolence of 1969, was tinged with sadness as City players and fans again paid touching tribute to the hero of that FA Cup final, Neil Young.
The players emerged from the tunnel all wearing red and black striped shirts bearing his name and their own squad numbers – they will be auctioned off to raise money for the Neil Young Appeal.
Fans donned their red and black scarves in honour of their erstwhile hero, and to raise funds for him and for cancer research. There were also bucket collections, a souvenir programme and a tribute on the big screen
City had hoped Neil, suffering from terminal cancer, would be well enough to attend the game after returning home from a spell in hospital.
But he had to watch on television as he was simply too ill to be there, but the tribute added a poignancy and a sense of history.
Of course, the perfect way to honour one of their stars of yesteryear would be to lift the famous old trophy for the first time since that May day 41 years ago.
And City stayed on course for that with a competent display, lit up by the goalscoring genius of Tevez and the sumptuous passing of David Silva.
And yet it was Leicester who set the early pace, Andy King, who snapped up the equaliser in the original game with an assist from Joe Hart, seeing his shot deflected onto the roof of the net.
In an open, flowing first half, Tevez sent Johnson away with a superb reverse ball, but the England man slipped just as he cocked back his leg to shoot, and the chance slipped away.
Chances were coming thick and fast at both ends, as Joleon Lescott, deceived by King's glancing header, almost chested the ball past Hart, who recovered to grab in the nick of time.
Then, as usual, Tevez took a hand in proceedings.
Collecting a throw-in out on the right, he turned cleverly away from Yuki Abe, got a slice of luck as Jack Hobbs' challenge deflected into his path, but then he exploded onto the ball.
Keeper Weale was directly in line with his rising drive, but could only touch the shot as it rocketed past him and tested the integrity of the net.
But the expected City deluge did not come.
Equaliser
Leicester picked up an equaliser from nothing as Dyer drifted in from the right wing, Vieira unwisely jerked out a leg and the winger accepted the invitation to tumble at the merest of contacts.
Gallagher accepted the gift with a thumping spot kick, and we were back to square one.
Nigel de Jong spoke this week about the need for players other than Tevez to step up when inspiration is needed, and City have several.
But on this occasion it was again Tevez who was behind City's second goal, this time as creative maestro rather than finisher.
His sweeping 35-yard pass to Pablo Zabaleta out-flanked the massed Leicester defence, and when the full back smartly pulled the ball back, Silva was waiting to fire goalwards.
The shot was blocked on the line by Sol Bamba's lunge, but the ball popped neatly into Vieira's path to stab in his first FA Cup goal for five years. Anyone looking for omens should note that the last time the Frenchman scored in this competition, his Arsenal team went on to win the final, beating United on penalties at the Millennium Stadium.
Within a minute the Blues were almost home and hosed. This time it was Silva displaying his class with a perfectly-weighted pass down the middle of the defence for Johnson to skate through.
He kept his poise and finished expertly.
Tevez should have sealed it when he raced clear and was up-ended by Hobbs in the area.
But for the second successive time, he missed from the spot. Against Blackpool, he hooked it wide, this time he drilled it, but too close to Weale, who saved with his legs.
Leicester took advantage of such profligacy, re-awakening memories of the way the Blues almost hashed it against Wolves on Saturday.
Yuki Abe played a one-two off ref Mark Halsey and slid a pass for the pacy Dyer. Vincent Kompany would normally have made it, but he looked leggy as he went to ground and failed to get proper contact.
Dyer ran through to despatch the ball past Hart and give the fans another nervy ten minutes.
The butterflies were calmed by Kolarov, slamming in his first goal for the club from the edge of the area just when it seemed a City counter-attack had been wasted.
What is your verdict on the action? Have your say.
Manchester City 4 Leicester 2
January 18, 2011
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Mancini................. Please , Please wait a little longer before taking the foot off the gas, its getting annoying now
I'm gobsmacked tonight, I would have put my house on Jo never wearing a City shirt again, disgrace
And Halsey the so called "City Fan", rules are rules chap, denying a clear goalscoring opportunity, red card.................. what did you give............ nowt
Both Leicester strikers (pass could have gone to either) offside for their second. I cannot imagine that goal EVER being allowed at the Swamp! But that prompted a response and Kolarov's strike very sweet, it's been coming. Very fitting that a quality left foot shot should be that one that finally beat Leicester in the FA Cup. Neil Young did that to make my 9th birthday well memorable ...
Good goals, 'cini must find it hard to drop johnson now, nice to see kolarov score. Dont like the amount of goals were conceding but as long as we keep scoring as many as we have been itll be hard to lose. Viera must have seen his last game for us now though, today showed its time he called it a day.
Great a result for City not the greatest performance defence looked shaky but the important thing is we are through
We seem to be making hard work of games we should be winning with ease. Lescott had a nightmare I'm really not sure what happens with him from now on as I don't think he is a bad defender but not top drawer either. On the plus side I thought we dealt with the set pieces much better than the first game and there was some lovely football at times good times ahead, though still a lot of work to be done.
Just cannot do it the easy way.Some day we will not score the goals required to make up for the sloppy defensive and midfield gaps.Need a proper commanding centre half but great to see the goals spread.Tevez needs Balotelli to give him some penalty taking lessons.We done City now lets tie County in notts.Up the Blues.
Did ESPN not pay the rent on the suite?.
It could have been a big score if CITY had wanted to press on the gas. Carlito's Way. All great goals from CITY and we go from strength to strength. Robbie Savage is smart and he knows his onions. Good Luck to CITY.
The beauty of the cup again shines through it could have been 6 7 even 8,but the refs lovely one two had us on our toes.Leicester iexpect to see in the premier league within two years.
Another win but they made us work for it ,Kolorov goes missing to many times for me ,and Lescotts not good enough for this team ,oh how we missed De yong our enforcer ,after Siiva went of the midfield was disjointed Zab again was again Mr reliability ,wish we had another central defender to help big Vinnie out still a win is a win ,Sven teams do play good football dont they . Keith
Understand having to rest Silva but with our recent record, would have left him on for another 10 minutes!!.
Hope Balotelli will be given the penalty duty when available to play.
Our forward line, great as usual, Milner worked hard but other usual suspects in midfield and defence??
Vieira should have been replaced at half-time, it was us playing with 10 men not Leicester, which it should have been.
Rather have seen Nimely and Boyota instead of Vieira/Jo and Lescott.
The commentator said that Barry does not look very athletic, perhaps because he is not.
Vieira,Lescott and Barry on the same pitch, scary indeed!!
Can only hope Boateng and Richards might have played if they had been available?
Most expensive team ever to play in the FA cup, yes it could have been 6 nil and others will say, job done, but for me, as against Wolves - not done well enough!!
Great result but a bit like the Wolves game all over again.Patrick Viera in my opinion at his peak was the greatest midfielder to ever grace the prem,unfortunately he now resembles one of those class boxers that doesnt know when to hang his gloves up.Sad to see it but he really is a liability,when he plays were just gifting teams midfield.Another nerve jangler should of sewn it up long before,but it just wouldnt be city to do it any other way,bring on county,ive got that gut feeling this year i might need my sat nav to find wembley.
WELL DONE BLUES & BOBBI -
I said it against Wolves, I will say it again...2 world class centre halves and we will be untouchable ...
Lescott is a waste of a blue shirt ...
Jo is dire,
And if only Carlos, Johnson, Yaya would pass the simple square ball on goal we would score instead of wanting the glory ...
But well done BLUES...unlucky SVEN !!
CITY FOR LIFE -
We shut up shop and are cautious, boring, defensive.
We attack and score 8 goals in two games and now are leaking goals and rubbish at the back!
We all need to chill and take stock. End of January and level at top of league, going well in Europa league and FA cup with good draws. Players adapting to rotation, each other, systems we play, tactics and for some the premier league. We will only get better.
Mancini doing fantastic job.
Liked the way ESPN handled the end of the match synopsis especially the interview / discussion with RB !
I love city, and I'll back all the players no matter what when talking to other fans, but on here I can be honest among fellow blues. Like confession. Jo has done everything he could possibly do to confirm he is one of the worst players in our history but I'll still keep a straight face and say otherwise because I've got his back, he's a blue and its not his fault he's crap and we overpaid for him and I really don't expect him to improve. But Lescott, I can't take it anymore, I feel that everytime he plays something bad is going to happen. Yes he has played very well at times this season, but when playing alongside Kompany, "at times" isn't good enough because it seems to have an affect on Kompany when Lescott plays bad which is more than half the time he plays.
I do wish I'm wrong and hope Lescott makes me eat my words I would love nothing better, but sadly, I don't think he's good enough for us.
I know he wasn't really at fault for any of the goals tonight, and against Wolves when he gave that pen away, I defended him, but when he miss kicked the ball with his right foot with 5 mins to go in our own half-holy mother of God!!! All I could do was role my eyes because it didn't come as a surprise and when that happens with your centre back, you know there problems and that mistakes are bound to happen the more he plays.
Three questions:
1. Is is time to change our penalty taker? Balotelli when he is playing?
2. Is it wise to select Vieira, a once great player, but now at the end of his career?
3. Should Jo ever play again for us? Better to put one of our kids on the bench, at least they would run and tackle!
Bad = Clunky Joleon + showboat substitutions + I-love-Patrick-Vieira-but-hes-no-longer-any-good-at-footie
Good = Tevez + AJ + Yaya + de Jong on next game
Even better: Neil Young tribute. We are a classy club.
This was a totally unconvincing performance where in the 2nd half we were awful.
Kolarov? what can I sqay about him otjher than the £16M paid out for him was far tto excessive,he rarely gets forward and for me he gets 'skinned' too much for comfort down our left and he simply does not provide an outlet for the other players in that area of the pitch.
Lescott? in my opinion he has gone backwards which I suppose tonight in particular Kompany has been made to look vunerable himself playing alongside him.
Overall despite the comfertable looking scoreline it didn't exactly generate a great deal of optimism and I was left very disappointed,it has to get better and YES certainly quicker!
Without trying to sound petty, it was an April day 42 years ago that City last lifted that "famous old trophy".
Come on Stuart, at least make the effort.
CTID.
What a strange game dont know whether City were brilliant or rubbish probably a bit of both at times. We are scoring goals and winning games but our defence looks vulnerable and not playing as well as it was earlier in the season. For me i would play Boateng alongside Vinnie. Its what his prefered position is and he looks a natural centre half. I am sure Roberto and his staff are on the case and we will begin to defend properly again.
I never had much time for Robbie Savage but fair play to him tonite as he was very complimentary about City and their future prospects and to be fair so was Stevie Mc. Take note Hansen,Alan Green and Lawrenson it costs nothing to be unbiased.
Come on City going to be a great season. Do it for Neil Young.
CTID
Would try Richards at c/back. Boateng not used to PL yet. Lescott scares me as evidenced by the complete mess he made of a clearance of him, Kompany and Hart were messing about. (Not to mention his clumsiness on Sat).
Vieira is well well past his sell by; Jo never had one; and Milner is only effective on the flank. Not got the passing skills for centre mid.
Wd swap 4231 for 4132 for Villa
Given
Zabba Richards Kompany Kolarov
de Jong
Silva Ya Ya Milner
Dzeko Tevez
Subs
Hart, Boateng, Kolo Klown, Barry, AJ,Adebayor, M Johnson (more mobile than Vieira on 1 leg); SWP.
Trying not to betoo critical but from where I was sat we were chasing shadows for long periods of the game as Leicester made us look very ordinary indeed. I thought we would simply out pass and out move them and show our extra class. Not a bit of it. They kept the ball and we simply couldn't get it off them having to feed on scraps. They defence looked worryingly pressurised all game and none of them will look back on that 90 minutes with any pride. Even Kompany looked flustered at times and was left for pace for their second goal. The lack of pace in the midfield was embarrassing although we know Vieira can't do more than 60 minutes these days.
Not sure how the Leicester guy stayed on - last man, clear goal scoring opportunty etc etc. Clear red.
Also the atmosphere was like being at an away game. If the Leicester fans can make that much noise, why can't we ?
Not one of our better performances we at least we got through.
The problem is Lescott, the solution is get rid of him. Worse than Jo and Vieira put together. All 3 should be sold for the first bid as buy 1 and get 2 free.
Silva was awesome, whilst Tevez needs a break from penalties.
I feel I must repeat it again, Lescott go away. I would rather play Boyata any day.
You lot can spout all the bull and propaganda you like, but tonight showed you for what you really are. Forget your team, yes they are quality players, albeit mercenaries, I'm talking about you lot, the fans...or should that be so calle/alledged fans?
To have TWENTY THOUSAND empty seats (just over half the capacity!) is a disgrace. And that is not taking into consideration the 6,000 Leicester fans there, which is nigh over 20% of the overall attendance!!
To say you lot are a big club with is a joke and the majority of the watching audience will have seen it too.
If ever there was a statement confirming that Manchester is RED, then this was it.
I look forward to your obvious replies once you get back home to Stockport.
Oh and by the way, despite the low turnout...do you realise that you're actually contributing to FC United in their quest to build anew ground..???
Now that is what I call irony.....
35Y
I’m sure Edin Dzeko must be really confused tonight. In his first press conference with the club, he revealed he had been told that most football fans in Manchester supported City, not United.
If that is the case, why were there over 20,000 empty seats at City’s ground tonight? Tickets were on sale today at £15 for adults and £5 for kids. Leicester brought 6,000 fans tonight, making the home attendance just 21,755.
Anyone?