City, Wolves rampant as Stoke edge through

City, Wolves rampant as Stoke edge through

Manchester City secured an FA Cup fourth round tie against Notts County with a 4-2 victory over Sven Goran Eriksson's Leicester at Eastlands on Tuesday. Carlos Tevez gave the hosts the lead in the third-round replay only for Paul Gallagher's penalty to bring Eriksson's Championship team level.

Eriksson spent a season at City before being sacked in 2008 and coached City's current boss Roberto Mancini at Italian club Sampdoria. But he had to play second fiddle this time out as David Silva laid on goals for Patrick Vieira and Adam Johnson in little over a minute before half time.

Tevez had a penalty saved after the break, the second time he has missed from the spot in 2011, and Lloyd Dyer scored a second for Leicester with seven minutes left. City, who had to withstand a late comeback in their 4-3 win over Wolves at the weekend, added a fourth through Aleksander Kolarov in the final minute.

Mancini was unhappy with his defence and said: "We must improve. We have conceded a lot of goals in the last three games, so we must be sure to work hard."
They have some better players than us, but I think we need to be proud.
Eriksson on his team's showing

Eriksson added: "We were in the game for 90 minutes at home, and 87 here, and that's good. They have some better players than us, but I think we need to be proud. We have shown in these two games we can play good football and stand up to physically strong teams."

Leicester almost took the lead early on when Andy King's shot was deflected on to the roof of the net from a Steve Howard knock-down. But City could have pulled ahead themselves when Tevez sent Johnson clean through only for the England winger to stumble in front of goalkeeper Chris Weale.

Leicester continued to press, with Gallagher's cross being flicked on by King and almost turned into his own net by Joleon Lescott. But with a quarter of an hour gone, City took the lead with another fine effort by Tevez. He received a throw from fellow Argentinian Pablo Zabaleta and beat challenges from Yuki Abe and Jack Hobbs before hitting a drive into the top corner for his 15th of the season and fourth in three games.

Leicester hit back immediately, when the impressive Dyer went down in the area under a challenge from Vieira. Former Blackburn winger Gallagher thumped the resulting penalty past Joe Hart to wipe out City's lead after just four minutes. Dyer almost added a second when he broke from halfway and had a shot deflected narrowly wide by Lescott.

But City re-took the lead eight minutes before half time when Silva's cross was blocked on the line by Souleymane Bamba and turned in by Vieira. They scored a third a minute later when Silva sent Johnson through and the winger guided a shot past the onrushing Weale and into the net.

Dyer and Franck Moussa both missed with efforts before the break as Leicester searched for a way back. City looked like they would add more goals on the break, with Yaya Toure sending Johnson into space, and Tevez eventually shooting over the bar from James Milner's pass.

Late drama
The hosts were given the chance to increase their lead further when Kolarov played through for Tevez and the striker was tripped in the area by Hobbs. But Tevez saw his penalty saved by Weale and Leicester cleared the danger. Weale was also at full stretch to deny Johnson after he was played in behind the Leicester defence by Kolarov.

When Dyer went down under another challenge from Vieira in the area, the two had to be separated after an ugly shoving match. Dyer then set up a tense finale when he produced a fine finish from Abe's through-ball to halve the deficit with seven minutes left. But after a quick break through Tevez, Kolarov drilled a low shot into the corner to score a fourth for the home team.

Elsewhere, Wolves sailed through after recording a resounding 5-0 triumph over Doncaster at Molineux. Goals from Steven Fletcher, Geoffrey Mujangi Bia, Kevin Doyle, Matt Jarvis and David Jones handed Wolves a fourth-round clash at home to Stoke, who needed extra time and a pair of goals from Jon Walters to best Cardiff 2-0.