West Ham United progressed to the quarter finals of the Carabao Cup after they knocked Manchester City out on penalties at the London Stadium following an entertaining stalemate.
Both teams fielded somewhat second string sides giving some of their regular starters an opportunity to rest up for the upcoming congested fixture run.
City dominated possession, however they were unable to manufacture many chances and on the rare occasion that they did, the West Ham defence was equal to it.
West Ham themselves managed a few efforts but they too were unable to break the deadlock. In the shoot out, Phill Foden, who took City’s first spot kick, was the only one who failed to net. Said Benrahma, himself a substitute scored the penalty that saw David Moyes’ team into the last 8.
As expected, City started with plenty of possession but clear cut chances were hard to come by.
Some neat play down the right hand side from Raheem Sterling in the 5th minute came to nothing as he failed to find Palmer with a pass. In the 10th minute, Palmer got the better of a turgid Masuauo before he played in Gundogan.
A brilliant last ditch tackle from Ben Johnson however meant that the hammers remained unscathed.
West Ham had a rare moment of relative success as a Mark Noble ball found Nikola Vlasic but Zinchenko blocked his shot out for a throw to remove any danger. David Moyes’ side continued their spell of possession as Mark Noble came closest to opening the scoring with a speculative shot from 20 yards out which Steffen saved.
With 24 minutes on the clock, an Aaron Cresswell cross went begging with Niola Vlasic failing to make the most of a decent opportunity. At the other end, Alphonse Areola was called into action as he saved a Cole Palmer effort with his legs.
On the half hour mark, a curling Gundogan effort flew miles wide prompting hearty cheers from the home crowd.
A right footed volley courtesy Riyad Mahrez ended up going across the face of goal and out for a West Ham throw in the 37th minute.
The rest of the half was played out with little incident of note. Truth be told, neither side were particularly adventurous throughout the half but West Ham would certainly be the happier of the two going into the break at 0-0.
West Ham came out of the dressing room unchanged, but Pep Guardiola made a switch as Joao Cancelo replaced Kyle Walker at right back. The Hammers started the second period brightly with Masuaku making a run into the City penalty area but he got the ball caught between his feet and City were able to clear. Masuaku impressed again as he ran into a Noble pass and drove a shot over the bar.
Tomas Soucek then saw a side footed shot go narrowly wide after another period of brilliant build up play. With half an hour to play, David Moyes made a triple change with Said Benrahma, Pablo Fornals and Jarod Bowen replacing Vlasic, Yarmolenko and Masuaku in an attempt to take advantage of their positive spell at the beginning of the second half.
Lineups:
West Ham: Alphonse Areola, Ben Johnson, Craig Dawson, Issa Diop, Aaron Cresswell, Tomas Soucek, Mark Noble, Nikola Vlasic, Manuel Lanzini, Arthur, Masuaku, Andriy Yarmolenko
Manchester City: Zack Steffen, John Stones, Nathan Ake, Olexander Zinchenko, Kevin De Bruyne, Fernandinho, Ilkay Gundogan, Riyad Mahrez, Raheem Sterling, Cole Palmer