Emirates FA Cup quarter final: Swansea City 2–3 Manchester City

Weird, wonderful, and then ultimately gut wrenching.

For 69 minutes it was one of those surreal sporting fairy tales. A Swansea side ravaged by injuries, plagued by incompetent owners, and without a win (or goal) in two Championship matches toppling the star studded elite of Man City.

Cruelly it went on long enough for fans to believe it was actually going to happen – Swansea going Wembley for an FA Cup semi final. Graham Potter has spent much of this season turning water into wine. Here, he was set to produce Dom Perignon Vintage.

And yet, the City riposte came as no surprise. Maybe even expected. Sterling and Aguero came on and the avalanche ensued – three goals in 19 minutes keeping their unlikely quadruple hopes alive. It’s what Manchester City do, but the manner of how they achieved it will rankle Potter and the players for some considerable time, even if the manager himself was too dignified to admit it afterwards.

In teeming rain, Matt Grimes’ clinical penalty and Bersant Celina’s stunning strike had put Swansea 2-0 up at the break. Bernardo Silva pulled one back and then 12 minutes from time, Raheem Sterling was tackled in the area by Cameron Carter-Vickers. The latter’s touch on the ball was seemingly missed by referee Andre Marriner though, and Aguero’s fortuitous penalty went in via the post and the otherwise outstanding Kristoffer Nordfeldt.

Two minutes from time, the farce was enhanced when the Argentine headed in from an offside position to complete City’s comeback.

The term farce of course refers to football’s most divisive friend, VAR. The system was used at exactly the same stage of the competition at the Liberty last season when Swansea played Spurs.

Yesterday it wasn’t allowed though. It can only be permitted at Premiership grounds, creating a bizarre imbalance in a cup competition supposedly battling against the tide of fading significance. Here we had a last eight tie live on BBC television where millions witnessed replays of two obvious official errors. Such errors of course, would have been rectified had Marriner had use of the same technology that Martin Atkinson did when Wolves played Man United later last night.

Perhaps it wouldn’t have mattered. Perhaps City would have scored more goals regardless, such was their momentum late on. What will gall Potter and his players further though, who were magnificent in terms of both application and effort, is that they won’t ever know.

Swansea’s supreme first half

Early on everything seemed well with the world. Leroy Sane and Bernardo forced smart saves out of Nordfeldt and Riyad Mahrez headed wide. A City opener seemed inevitable.

But Swansea grew into it, the speed of Daniel James as prominent as ever as they began to attack City on the break.

After 20 minutes Connor Roberts cut past Delph and was brought down in the area. Swansea had previously missed four from seven penalties this season, but Grimes dispatched this one into the top corner with aplomb.

Nine minutes later surprise became ecstasy. A flowing passing move resulted in Dyer threading in Celina, who curled a first time shot exquisitely past Ederson. In midweek, the Kosovan had been the butt of Twitter jokes after slipping in an attempted Panenka penalty at West Brom. This time he prompted a different joke – people hailing to the return of ‘Swanselona’.

At the end of the half David Silva was denied by a brilliant Roberts block on the goal line. The home side were throwing bodies everywhere in their own area, and yet you felt two goals still wasn’t enough.

City throw on the cavalry

As if the gulf in depth wasn’t already clear, Pep Guardiola rammed it home by bringing on Oleksandr Zinchenko, Sterling, and Aguero.

For 24 second half minutes City had probed but Swansea had held firm. Every offside flag, every goal kick, and every survived scramble prompting mini roars from the Jack Army.

Then on 69 minutes the wall was breached, Aguero teeing up Bernardo to finish superbly with the outside of his boot.

The lead still lasted until 12 minutes from time when Marriner’s howler gifted Aguero the chance to level. Technically it was a Nordfeldt own goal but it went in, and watching the Swansea players walk back to half way you sensed the inevitable. They looked spent.

Then their Swedish keeper made a stunning double save at 2-2, pushing Jesus' header onto the post before flicking out his leg to deny Aguero's follow-up. But there was still time.

Sue enough it was Aguero again whose diving header off Bernardo’s cross rounded off a signature slick City passing move. Replays showed he had strayed offside before doing so – but with no flag or VAR, it stood.

Bitter pill to swallow

Both managers were dignified afterwards. Potter focused on praising players instead of verbally blasting officials. Pep Guardiola apologised. To his credit, the Spaniard has for long been unequivocal in backing the widespread use of VAR.

He will continue to chase an historic quadruple with relentless desire. Potter on the other hand will wonder what could have been.

We could quite conceivably have had an FA Cup semi final line up of Watford, Wolves, Swansea and Millwall or Brighton. You can probably sense what I’m implying.

The day had started in a slightly bizarre manner at the Liberty. The club had decided to rouse the crowd with a montage of Swansea moments from this season complete with a voice over from rugby coach Jim Telfer, taking snippets from his famous pre game speech when the Lions beat South Africa in 1997. ‘The greatest day of your lives is upon you’ was the closing line.

But on an afternoon at the Liberty where so little made sense, for Potter and many of his players, it very nearly was.

Swansea City: Kristoffer Nordfeldt, Connor Roberts, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Mike van der Hoorn, (Nathan Dyer 61) Joel Asoro, Daniel James, Matt Grimes, Jay Fulton (Cian Harries 85), George Byers (Declan John 73), Wayne Routledge, Bersant Celina. Subs not used: Erwin Mulder, Barrie McKay, Yan Dhanda, Coutney Baker-Richardson.

Manchester City: Ederson, Kyle Walker, Ilkay Gundogan, Aymeric Laporte, Nicolas Otamendi, Fabian Delph (Oleksandr Zinchenko 57), Leyroy Sane (Raheem Sterling 57), Bernado Silva, David Silva, Riyad Mahrez (Sergio Aguero 64), Gabriel Jesus. Subs not used: Arijanet Muric, Danilo, Phil Foden, Eric Garcia.

Referee: Andre Marriner.