Middlesborough 0 Manchester City 1:ROBERTO MANCINI said: "I respect the FA Cup, it gets you into Europe. I respect the Carling Cup as well. At Manchester City we want to try to win everything."
If that sounds like a gloat in the direction of Old Trafford, it was made before Manchester United tripped up against Leeds. City too have a lengthy list of injuries, though like Alex Ferguson, with whom he tangles for the first time on Wednesday, Mancini has already embraced the idea cup competitions in England are all about assessing the ability of the opposition, then sending out a side just strong enough to get through.
Considering he has been in the country only a matter of weeks Mancini got his formula spot-on at the Riverside. Robinho was not required, Dedryck Boyata and Vladimir Weiss made their first starts and, after Benjani Mwaruwari had celebrated his first game since October with the only goal of the match, City brought on Gareth Barry, Carlos Tevez and Craig Bellamy to stretch a tiring Boro defence in the second half.
Gordon Strachan, who also has pressing league concerns and cannot afford to be too romantic about the FA Cup, seemed to be wryly illustrating the gulf in resources between the two clubs when he introduced 16-year-old Luke Williams as his final substitute, the youngest player to appear for Boro for 105 years.
Williams did well, though like his senior team-mates, not quite well enough. Strachan had a point when arguing his side could have done without losing Adam Johnson to a hamstring injury after half an hour, yet even before their best player departed it was plain to see Boro were not going to be keeping Shay Given all that busy. Strachan’s team lacks a cutting edge and Boyata, even after being promoted from City’s youth ranks and losing his partner Micah Richards at half-time, kept Marcus Bent quiet.
The 19-year-old Belgian had been expecting to spend Christmas at home with his family but was told at the last minute to cancel his Christmas Eve flight and train with the first team. “I was a bit upset at first, but the manager took the defence in training and when he called me over I was really shocked,” Boyata said. “I only saw my name on the team sheet two hours before kick-off and I was a bit stressed for a while but once the game started I was fine.”
Boyata had even less to worry about once City took the lead and Mancini released his more experienced players for the second half. It was experience that produced the game’s decisive moment on the stroke of the interval, when Martin Petrov’s run took advantage of a retreating defence and his measured diagonal pass allowed Benjani a shooting chance. Boro never looked likely to reply and Strachan needs to get goals into his side as soon as he can.
