FA Cup round-up: Man City through, penalties, red cards and more; Tsitsipas’ Dubai crown
The fifth round of English football’s main domestic knockout competition has provided plenty of entertainment so far
It may not have been the most glamorous FA Cup fifth round line-up, but Saturday’s matches sure did deliver.
Penalty shoot-outs, red cards, young heroes and a meeting of two sides who faced off on the opening weekend of the English Football League in September 1888.
So let’s take a look at what happened.
In it to win it
They suffered a scare against this season’s giant-killers, Plymouth Argyle, but Manchester City roared back to win 3-1 and must be considered the team to avoid in the last eight.
The Championship strugglers, who had knocked out Premier League sides Brentford and Liverpool, took the lead at the Etihad through Maksym Talovierov, before goals either side of half-time from Nico Reilly turned the game on its head and Kevin De Bruyne sealed the win at the death.
Elsewhere, Bournemouth reached the competition’s quarter-finals for only the third time in their history as they beat Wolves on penalties after drawing 1-1.
Despite dominating the match, the Cherries failed to kill the game off and, heading into spot kicks, their task was made easier when Wolves’ star player, Matheus Cunha, was given his marching orders.
In a dramatic shoot-out, it was Bournemouth who blinked first, but that sparked a Wolves collapse as they missed their final two penalties to bow out.