Manchester City ease past Middlesbrough
A weakened Manchester City side progressed to the FA Cup fourth round with a 1-0 win against Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium.
Benjani Mwaruwari scored late in the first half with his only meaningful contribution to a drab encounter that lacked any of the FA Cup’s fabled magic.
Roberto Mancini fielded a shadow side, handing a debut to young defender Dedryck Boyata and including fringe players such as Javier Garrido and Vladimir Weiss.
The consequence was an uninspiring game that began in driving snow and remained bitterly cold throughout.
Only the half-time introduction of Carlos Tevez from the subs’ bench prevented the whole shebang from grinding to a halt.
Boro battled manfully, but lacked the guile to cut City open, especially after the departure of winger Adam Johnson with an injury just after the half-hour mark. City’s stand-in skipper Shay Given had a relaxed afternoon, and did not have a shot to save until the 91st minute when he caught a tame David Wheater header.
City’s Pablo Zabaleta saw an early shot from the edge of the box deflected behind for a corner, before Martin Petrov missed the target from similar range.
At the other end, Jonathan Franks made several promising forays but lacked support, and his crossing was so wayward it barely mattered.
Just as the first half appeared to be drifting to a close Petrov - playing in a central role - slid a neat through ball to Benjani, who placed a low shot past Danny Coyne into the left corner.
Although his side led, Mancini brought Tevez, Gareth Barry and Craig Bellamy off the bench for insurance.
Gary O’Neil fell dramatically in the City box on 47 minutes, but referee Stuart Attwell showed him a yellow card for diving.
Otherwise, Boro won a succession of corners from which they never looked like scoring.
Tevez provided some much-needed spectacle but failed to contrinue his rich vein of scoring form. The Argentine’s afternoon was summed up on 64 minutes when he did brilliantly to round Coyne, but skewed his shot painfully wide off the outside of his right foot. — Eurosport
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