Leicester 1 Manchester City 1 (3-4 on pens): Jamie Vardy misses vital spot-kick as Pep Guardiola’s march into semi-finals
Bernardo Silva looked to have sent Pep Guardiola's into the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup but were left stunned when Kyle Walker conceded a penalty in the 96th minute
SOMEHOW they got there.
Even when everything seemed to be against Manchester City - including referee Bobby Madley - they survived.
Pep is through to the Carabao Cup semi-final, winning another penalty shootout on this mind-bending night of Cup football.
Nobody really knows how Madley made penalties happen. It just did.
City, unbeaten in domestic football since April 27, are waiting for Arsenal, maybe Chelsea, hopefully Manchester United, in the mother of all semi-finals.
To see them celebrate the way they did when Claudio Bravo saved the cruellest, decisive spot-kick in the shootout, says so much.
Team spirit is sky high, at an all-time record as City continue this thrilling, spine-tingling run to the semi-final.
They are there because Bravo saved brilliantly from Mahrez, throwing himself to the left of his goal to seal the deal.
It had come to this because Madley, a man who looked like Christmas had come a week early judging by the size of him, awarded the softest of penalties 96 minutes in.
Kyle Walker was penalised when Demarai Gray went down with the wind in a foot race with City’s right back.
Jamie Vardy, on as a 57th minute substitute alongside Mahrez, drilled his penalty beyond Bravo.
It turned a Cup tie around, giving Leicester the chance to make a little bit of history by becoming the first side since Arsenal, in last season’s FA Cup semi-final, to topple them.
The wait goes on.
It goes on because Vardy missed at 3-4 and Mahrez was denied by the leaping future of Bravo in City’s goal. What a finish.
City had been playing fast and loose, ragged around the edges as the clock started ticking away.
They had gone in front after 26 minutes, making light of the nine changes to the side who spanked Tottenham 4-1 at the weekend.
Bernardo Silva got it, supplying the finishing touch after the twisting, weaving, slaloming run of Ilkay Gundogan put him in sight of goal.
So far so good.
That was until Claude Puel, battered for sending out a second string, started making some big calls.
Palace thrashed them 3-0 here on Saturday and yet their new head coach decided seven of them needed a rest.
The fans came to watch Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez and Gray - Premier League winners 18 months ago - give this a right good go.
Instead they got Kelechi Iheanacho, Aleksandar Dragovic and Vicente Iborra.
Those excitable Leicester fans, making such a din in the second half, finally got their way.
Iheanacho, playing like the shoelaces on his boots were tied together, did not have enough about him to really trouble old twinkle toes Eliaquim Mangala or young Tosin Adarabioyo in the centre of City’s defence.
His night was cut short after 56 miserable minutes, making the longest walk ever towards the touchline when he was replaced by Vardy.
He was not a happy bunny.
Gray got them back into it, with Madley pointing to the spot during an unfathomable eight minutes of injury time.
On the touchline, Pep was going spare. He had a point, to be fair.
When Vardy equalised it was shaping up to be one of those famous Leicester City nights.
They dine out on them around here, with tales of their title triumph still filling the night sky.
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Eventually the lights went out on them.
Vardy had given them such a lift, with his name reverberating around the stands when he came on in the second half.
Along with Mahrez, they had some serious work to do.
City were protecting a lead, punishing Leicester in the first half when Yaya Toure bullied Iheanacho off the ball.
His pass set Gundogan free through the centre and Silva read his delightful, no-look pass on the right.
The finish was classy and composed, beating Ben Hamer with a nifty bit of footwork 26 minutes in.
They are not quite the perfect side, because the perfect side would not allow Gabriel Jesus to leave his studs in Hamer’s thigh midway through the second half.
Gundogan was also in the book for diving, but he had a claim after another clumsy challenge by Dragovich inside the area.
City claimed a penalty in extra time, but Walker was booked for diving when he went down under Aleksandar Dragovic’s challenge.
If anything, Walker looked to have a decent shout for a pen.
Instead, it went to the drama of pens.
They went up one by one, with Gundogan, Toure, Lukas NMecha and Jesus all putting the ball in the back of the net.
Leicester could not live with the pressure, with Vardy’s effort clipping the bottom of Bravo’s post at 3-4.
Mahrez then had to score, but City’s second string keeper saved them when he read his spot-kick.
The celebrations spoke volumes, with City’s players and coaching staff racing to salute their travelling fans.
With spirit like that, anything is possible.