Forgotten-man Samaras proves City’s hero

Man City 1 Norwich City 0

The battle for a place at Eastlands will not be an easy one to win but the Greek forward started in the best manner possible, finishing off Kelvin Etuhu’s superb through ball to ensure the Premier League high-flyers overcame a determined Norwich side.

Not that City were that good. With only three chances of any note, the hosts seemed set to be taken into extra-time until Samaras found his range, charging clear of the Canaries defence to set the Blues fans chirping.

The Swede dropped nine of his starting line-up from the draw at Fulham. Only Irish duo, skipper Richard Dunne and midfielder Stephen Ireland remained and both men, for differing reasons, had missed the previous weekend’s win over Aston Villa.

It quickly became apparent that most of City’s attacks would come through Brazilian midfielder Geovanni. Unfortunately, his efforts met with little success during a truly awful opening period.

Indeed, the nearest City came to breaking the deadlock was from one of the free-kicks Geovanni did not take, Michael Ball curling an effort towards the top corner which David Marshall unconvincingly fumbled away.

Samaras did find himself in a bit of space on the half hour, enough to send a low effort curling towards the Norwich goal which Marshall pushed away.

Former City man Lee Croft could quite easily have put Norwich in front when he benefited from a dubious onside call as he strode on to Otsemobor’s touchline pass.

Despite the tightness of the angle, Croft really should have gone for goal himself. Instead he tried to find Jamie Cureton with a square ball and one-time team-mate Nedum Onuoha slid in to clear.

The lack of entertainment was summed up midway through the second period when Norwich manager Peter Grant controlled a punt out of play on his chest and began an impromptu keepie-uppie session which earned the biggest cheer of the entire night.

City substitute Etuhu wasted an opportunity to mark his debut with a winner, while Rolando Bianchi was also off target with a snap-shot.

But there was still time for a winner as Etuhu produced the pin-point pass which allowed Samaras to send City into the last 16.

MAN CITY: Hart, Logan, Dunne, Onuoha, Ball, Jihai, Ireland, Gelson (Etuhu 68), Samaras, Geovanni (Evans 79), Bianchi.

NORWICH: Marshall, Otsemobor, Doherty, Murray, Lappin, Russell, Jarvis, Spillane, Croft, Cureton, Brown.

Referee: Andre Marriner