Phil Foden scored twice as Manchester City overpowered Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup third round at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The Terriers held out for half an hour before Foden finished from an acute angle, with Julian Alvarez smartly doubling the lead soon after.
Ben Jackson’s own goal made it 3-0 shortly after Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku made their returns from injury. Foden placed in the fourth from the edge of the area before Doku slammed in De Bruyne’s cross.
How the game unfolded
Pep Guardiola made five changes from the side that beat Sheffield United in late December, with Stefan Ortega, Ruben Dias, Sergio Gomez, Rico Lewis and Oscar Bobb coming into the starting XI.
Visitors Huddersfield gave a debut to on-loan midfielder Alex Matos, recently signed from Chelsea, while fellow new arrival Bojan Radulovic was named on the bench.
Darren Moore’s team were well organised in the opening exchanges, defending deep and trying to spring on the counter-attack, though their efforts going forward were largely snuffed out as the hosts kept them pinned in without creating too many chances.
Guardiola was also forced into another tactical switch when Manuel Akanji was injured early on, bringing on Matheus Nunes as Rico Lewis dropped into right-back.
Jack Grealish had plenty of possession as he probed down the left and the opener eventually came when he found Mateo Kovacic, whose piercing pass picked out Julian Alvarez in space. His ball in hit Foden, who adjusted well and fired past Lee Nicholls.
The dogged resilience Huddersfield had shown wilted a few minutes later as City bagged another to take complete control.
Substitute Nunes combined quickly with Foden to scamper to the byline where he picked out Lewis, whose scuffed effort dribbled to Alvarez to instinctively prod in.
Town hadn’t shown enough threat in the first half to begrudge City a 2-0 half-time lead, with the task switching from causing an upset to avoiding a rout. However, there would be no stopping last season’s treble winers as they powered their way to a 5-0 win.
City made it three just before the hour mark as a raking pass found Matheus Nunes. Some smart control from the Portugal international helped it on to Oscar Bobb, whose effort deflected off Jackson and into the back of the net.
Just before that goal, Guardiola introduced De Bruyne for his first game since August after recovering from a hamstring injury, while Doku was in action having last been seen in the 3-3 draw with…
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