Manchester City survive late scare to see off Bristol City's dogged challenge and reach EFL Cup final

Bristol City 2 Manchester City 3 (3-5 agg): Lee Johnson's team went full throttle for the Premier League leaders once more but could not turn the tie on its head

Sergio Aguero celebrates firing home City's second goal (Getty)

Manchester City took another small step towards history tonight, even if it did not look like it. They went to Bristol City, won 3-2, and reached the crucial first final of the Pep Guardiola era. City will go to Wembley to play for the EFL Cup on 25 February. Yes, it is the smallest of the four trophies City are hunting, but it would still be a start. On Sunday they will be on other side of the River Severn, facing Cardiff City, aiming for the fifth round of the FA Cup.

This was not City’s best recent win, but they left Bristol with the only thing they came for. They controlled the first half and were clinical when they needed to be, scoring either side of the break, first Leroy Sane and then a Sergio Aguero rocket. That gave City a 4-1 lead in the tie that was never under threat, but did mean they took their eyes off the ball. Marlon Pack put them two goals away before Aden Flint bundled home in the third minute of added time.

Just when it felt a dead game might be reawakened, Kevin De Bruyne went down the other end and killed it off. His goal went with a brilliant assist in the week in which he committed his future to the club. No player is hungrier for trophies here, or more important in their pursuit, than the omnipotent Belgian.

Sergio Aguero holds off the attentions of two defenders (Getty)

How can you expect a Championship team to compete with players like him? This 3-2 narrow victory margin still does justice to Bristol City’s remarkable effort here, and a 5-3 loss over two legs is no bad result. They certainly caused Manchester City more problems than plenty of Premier League teams have done and here they tried to pull off an unlikely double: pressing Manchester City from the front, trying to disrupt their buildup, while getting bodies back in their own box to keep out Aguero, Sane and the rest. They played as well as they could but in reality it was never going to be enough.

It was clear from the very start that this was going to be a serious Manchester City performance. But for Ederson and Raheem Sterling on the bench, this was Manchester City’s strongest team and they pinned the hosts back with more intense pressing than anything they managed in the first leg. Bristol City were not just held in their own half, but in their own box.

Leroy Sane's strike finds the back of the net (Getty)

But Manchester City could not create the chances to go with their domination, missing Sterling’s ability to beat his man. And once Bristol City survived the early barrage, they grew into the game. Their fans cheered everything they could: a Hordur Magnusson block, a Joe Bryan tackle, a shuffle from Josh Brownhill. It is hard to create in open play with 10 men in your own half, but they did have set-pieces: Aden Flint headed Magnusson’s long throw, but Claudio Bravo was equal to it.

Bristol City needed to get to half-time, but the visitors took the game away from them just before the break. Magnusson was shepherding the ball out and somehow lost a physical challenge with Bernardo Silva, who had barely won a 50-50 all night. But he scrapped his way onto the ball and laid it back to Leroy Sane, who thumped it in.

So Bristol City had to attack and Lee Johnson made two half-time changes, but their two-goal target became three sooner than they could have expected. De Bruyne raced down the middle, checked inside a defender, spotted Aguero pulling away ahead of him, and hit a perfect right-footed curling pass onto his run. Aguero took one touch then thumped the ball across Luke Steele into the far top corner, a finish that only the best would try or pull off. If the first goal was scrappy, this one was an exhibit.

Marlon Pack celebrates after looping a header past Claudio Bravo (Getty)

That was basically that but Manchester City never looked secure under aerial bombardment. John Stones has not been the same since coming back from injury while Bravo conveys the opposite of confidence to his team-mates. With 25 minutes left, Stones scuffed a clearance and Jamie Paterson clipped a cross into the box. City stood still as Marlon Pack ran into the box and headed home.

From there Guardiola tried to see out the win but in the third of five added minutes Bristol City scrambled another. Out of nowhere, Aden Flint nodded in from Bobby Reid’s header across the box. All of a sudden it felt as if there might be a turnaround and extra-time, so City made sure there was not: Sane raced down the left and crossed to De Bruyne who scored. Manchester City had won the leg, eventually, and won the tie too. There will be far harder tests ahead and they will need to perform more completely than this.

Bristol City (4-4-1-1) Steele; Smith, Flint, Wright, Magnusson (Baker, 45); Brownhill, Pack, Walsh (Diedhiou, 45), Bryan; Paterson (Kent, 73); Reid

Man City (4-3-3) Bravo; Walker (Danilo, 85), Stones, Otamendi, Zinchenko; Fernandinho, De Bruyne, D. Silva; B. Silva, Aguero (Gundogan, 82), Sane

Man of the match Fernandinho

Match rating 5