Fulham knocked out of Carabao Cup by City
Man City 2 Fulham 0
Teenager Brahim Diaz scored twice to send Fulham out of the Carabao Cup despite them fielding a strong side against City’s youngsters.
Diaz’s first senior goals settled the tie and gave a hint of why Real Madrid have been linked with the Spaniard.
While Pep Guardiola made sweeping changes, Whites boss Slavisa Jokanovic fielded a strong side with only three new faces from the weekend, hoping for a victory that would end a run of four straight defeats.
There was little to encourage him early on. Kevin De Bruyne needed less than a minute to have his first crack at goal, and went close again in the fifth minute.
City had quickly set up camp in the Fulham half and would rarely leave, with Phil Foden the next to go close when he hit a powerful shot from the left which stung the palms of Sergio Rico before De Bruyne sent the rebound over.
Instead it was Foden’s fellow youngster Diaz who broke the deadlock five minutes later with his first City goal.
Vincent Kompany headed down a looping cross from Fabian Delph and Diaz ran on to it to hit a powerful shot which deflected off Aleksandar Mitrovic to beat Rico.
City pushed for more with Danilo cracking a shot against the outside of a post after breaking into the area, while Foden would head just wide from De Bruyne’s wicked cross as half-time loomed.
The second half started in much the same vein, with Leroy Sane’s dinked cross headed wide by Gabriel Jesus before De Bruyne bent a shot narrowly wide from the edge of the area.
The longer the game stayed at 1-0 the more Fulham were tempted into the City half, but just as it looked as though they were gaining a foothold in the match, the hosts doubled their lead in the 65th minute.
Foden was involved again, recovering possession and slipping it to Sane. He in turn played in Jesus but when the Brazilian’s shot across goal was touched on to a post by Rico, the ball fell for Diaz and the Spaniard took a touch before rifling the ball into the roof of the net.
