City Cruise Into Capital One Cup Semi-Final

AFP/Getty Images Wilfried Bony of Manchester City celebrates scoring the opening goal during the Capital One Cup Quarter Final match between Manchester City and Hull City at Etihad Stadium on December 1, 2015 in Manchester, England.

Kevin De Bruyne’s doubled helped Manuel Pellegrini’s City to a 4-1 victory over Steve Bruce’s Hull at the Etihad.

‘I think we have to treat it as a one-off.

The game followed the same pattern in the second half, with City pressing and probing but continuing to find Hull’s stubborn defensive resistance hard to penetrate.

Raheem Sterling whipped a cross in from the left and Iheanacho tapped in from close range to give City breathing space before De Bruyne grabbed a poacher’s goal and wrapped up the tie with a curling free kick from the edge of the box.

The City side included a number of fresh faces from their league victory over Southampton on Saturday, but was still packed full of talent, including playmaker David Silva who was making his first start in nearly two months following injury. We got to an FA Cup final and I’ve said all along that you should take the cups seriously, and I do, but when you’re a Championship side there’s no big gulf in the squad.

“The third goal of Alex fortunately killed the game for us – maybe we didn’t have a good week but we continue in the Champions League, the Capital One Cup and the Premier League”.

De Bruyne took advantage of widening gaps in Hull’s defence to score his first and then whipped in a free-kick, meaning he has now been involved in 16 goals in 11 home matches for City.

City won the League Cup in 2014, and went on to win the Premier League title. City’s progress to the semi-finals was as assured as it threatened to be from the moment the team sheets were handed in.

City’s other opportunity of note came from another Tigers error with Jake Livermore’s pass intercepted by Fernandinho, who played in Bony again, but his shot was gathered routinely by Eldin Jakupovic. In the League Cup they produced two outstanding displays to knock out Leicester City and Swansea City in the recent rounds. We’ve put ourselves in a great position despite our little setback on Friday night but there’s no better game to come back to than against one of the best teams in this country and in Europe.

“We’ve been punished and that’s the lesson you take – you get punished for any mistake you make against the big boys and you don’t get bigger than them”.

But Everton led 2-0 and 3-2 at Dean Court, only to twice let Bournemouth back into the game, and Romelu Lukaku says that his side will need to tighten up for the trip to the northeast.

Manchester City boss Pellegrini: “We will see, with the medical staff, the way they [Silva and Hart] recover”.