Manchester City vs Crystal Palace match report: Wilfried Bony and Kelechi Iheanacho spark City romp to quarter-finals of League Cup

Manchester City 5 Crystal Palace 1: Performance shows Manuel Pelligrini is taking the competition very seriously

Kevin De Bruyne slots in City's second (Getty Images)

His first piece of silverware may have been a rather fortuitously won League Cup, but the domestic trophies have provided something of an embarrassment for Manuel Pellegrini, knocked out three times at home by sides Manchester City might have been expected to beat comfortably.

This season they have been ruthlessly efficient. Sunderland, who on Wearside at least have proved a bogey team, conceded four in the third round and now a Crystal Palace side, who deserved rather better, endured a worse scoreline.

Pellegrini is too much of a gentleman to say so but the Manchester City manager would not be human if a part of him did not relish Jose Mourinho’s discomfort. The man whose ‘friends’ undermined him when he managed Real Madrid and who mocked him when he was sacked is, like him, a big-team manager who takes the League Cup very seriously. With Chelsea eliminated, Manchester City look very short odds to win the trophy back.

It was not quite as straightforward as the scoreline suggests but in the play of Kelechi Iheanacho and the way Manu Garcia ran through to score the fifth underlines the fact that they possess some highly-gifted young footballers.

Crystal Palace deserved better than 5-1. The penalty Damien Delaney conceded when holding Eliaquim Mangala was very similar to a Palace appeal that was turned down in the first half. The spot-kick was converted by Yaya Touré, although Delaney was given a modicum of revenge when heading home Palace’s consolation.

The tie was barely a quarter of an hour old when it came to a shuddering halt with a clash of heads between Pablo Zabaleta and Yannick Bolasie that drew a small, shocked gasp around the stadium. Bolasie looked the more seriously hurt, lying prone for several minutes while he received treatment. Both men emerged with bandages around their skulls, although Zabaleta soon tossed his aside. The immensely popular Argentine did, however, end the evening on a stretcher when he appeared to pull a muscle early in the second half.

Before the incident, Crystal Palace had been playing with verve and considerable freedom. Moments after the match resumed, they were behind to the sort of goal Wilfried Bony was brought from Swansea to score.

He met Aleksandar Kolarov’s corner at pace and fractionally before his marker, Adrian Mariappa. The ball buried itself in Wayne Hennessey’s net for Bony’s third goal in as many starts. He may not ever carry the same aura as Sergio Aguero but as a back-up striker Bony has been worth the investment.

So, too, despite the enormous fee extracted by Wolfsburg, has Kevin de Bruyne. When, in the opening exchanges, he took the ball from Scott Dann and cut in from the left, the Belgian produced a shot that swept past the face of Hennessey’s goal, it seemed this might be a very safe passage into the quarter-finals for Pellegrini.

On the surface it was a smooth run but, at least until City went ahead, it proved no such thing. Alan Pardew may have been playing for Crystal Palace the last time they won in the blue half of Manchester, but he had been at Newcastle’s helm when they knocked City out of the Capital One Cup here last season. Patrick Bamford, part of an excellent Middlesbrough side that removed Manchester City from the FA Cup, was now leading the Palace attack.

Palace might have taken the lead early on when Wilfried Zaha cut the ball back to Joe Ledley, whose shot was blocked by Martin Demichelis. As the ball spun away Bolasie and Willy Caballero scrambled for it before the keeper gathered it.

Just before the five minutes of first-half stoppage time, Caballero pushed a low cross towards Ledley who might have done better than scuff his shot over the bar and Pardew, at least, was convinced his side ought to have been awarded a penalty when Eliaquim Mangala appeared to wrestle with Zaha in the area. Caballero, unlike Bony, does not seem an especially convincing understudy to a world-class performer. Joe Hart’s deputy exudes vulnerability and, when coming to meet Jordon Mutch’s free-kick just after the restart, he spilt it under pressure from Mile Jedinak. Once more he was indebted to Demichelis who clipped the ball off the line.

By then, Manchester City were two goals to the good, giving them the kind of cushion a side of their ability should not squander. The scorer of the second was De Bruyne but he knew the credit belonged to its creator.

At Selhurst Park earlier in the season, Kelechi Iheanacho had scored the only goal of a match that might ultimately be more important to Manchester City than this one. Now the teenage Nigerian drove towards Hennessey’s near post, taking three Palace defenders with him before playing the ball across the face of the goal for De Bruyne to score his 10th of the season and his sixth for Manchester City. There would not have been many quite so simple.

The season is only three months old but you suspect Pardew and Palace have seen quite enough of Iheanacho, who just before the hour mark turned in the area and shot home. The match had begun with the unfurling of a banner showing Mike Doyle lifting the 1976 League Cup. In this kind of form, the trophy might be soon be handed to another man in blue.

Man of the match Iheanacho.

Match rating 6/10.

Referee P Tierney (Lancashire).

Attendance 40,585.