Sterling Effort from City

Manchester City beat Newcastle United 2-0 in the FA Cup Quarter-Final to set up a Semi-Final showdown with Arsenal. Steve Bruce's side probably made the mistake of sitting too deep; allowing City the time and space to dominate possession and employ the free-flowing passing game that they crave.

Newcastle played with an interesting 3-4-3 line-up; with Andy Carroll & Javier Manquillo amongst the surprise inclusions; but by and large; it didn't really work; with Carroll & substitute Joelinton guilty of overly physical play and the central midfield getting over-run at times by City's aristocrats.

And it was Manquillo's rather blatant push on Gabriel Jesus inside the box that led to Kevin de Bruyne's opening penalty. For all of City's dominance though; Newcastle did come out fighting in the second half; and substitute Dwight Gayle missed a glorious opportunity to equalise after being teed up by Allan Saint-Maximin following Nicolas Otamendi's misplaced pass. It was to be the turning point; as Newcastle heads dropped after that and as if on cue; Raheem Sterling continued his impressive form with a curler from outside the box to seal City's triumph.