Salford City outclassed at the Etihad as Manchester City run riot

Salford City’s historic FA Cup run came to an end as they fell to an 8-0 defeat against Manchester City.

On an occasion when the reigning Premier League champions were in comfortable ascendancy most of the match Karl Robinson’s team, at times, carried a significant threat in attack and were unfortunate to leave the Etihad Stadium without a famous away goal.

Determined to avoid being on the receiving end of a monumental FA Cup shock, Pep Guardiola’s hosts produced a ruthlessly professional performance.

The home side raced into a three-goal lead before half-time through goals from Jeremy Doku, Divin Mubama and Nico O’Reilly.

And as Salford legs tired after the interval, and Guardiola turned to his star-studded bench, the gulf in quality between the two sides separated by 64 league places became increasingly evident as James MacAtee completed a second-half hattrick either side of Doku’s second.

Karl Robinson made two changes to the Salford City side that defeated MK Dons 1-0 a week earlier, drafting Matty Lund and Kylian Kouassi into the starting line-up to replace Ryan Watson and Cole Stockton.

The Ammies’ hopes of an unlikely victory were all but extinguished inside eight minutes as livewire Jeremy Doku waltzed onto Jack Grealish’s pass to steer home the opener.

Manchester City vs Salford City Credit: Edward Hayton

Manchester City remained on the front foot and were denied a second when Hakeeb Adelakun hooked Jahmai Simpson Pusey’s goal-bound header off the line at the back post.

However, Salford’s reprieve was to be short-lived as 20-year-old Mubama, rotated into the starting line-up in place of Erling Haaland for his Manchester City debut, tapped in Matheus Nunes’ square ball from close range to double the host’s advantage.

Moments before O’Reilly slotted Manchester City’s third goal past Matthew Young, Salford squandered a golden opportunity to halve the deficit when Kouassi, unmarked in the centre of the goal, miscued a volley wide well wide of the target.

Having been poleaxed by Ossama Ashely in the Salford penalty area, Grealish picked himself up to convert City’s fourth from the spot on 49 minutes before McAtee diverted Jermey Doku’s teasing cross past Young to add the fifth.

Then, Jeremy Doku completed his brace with a calmly taken penalty after Curtis Tilt was adjudged to have handled in the box.

McAtee reacted quickly to latch onto the end of Phil Foden’s wayward effort before calmly slotting City’s seventh on 72 minutes, and less than 10 minutes later the 22-year-old completed his hat-trick, sliding to turn home Grealish’s pass across goal, rounding off the host’s comprehensive 8-0 victory.