Aguero finished off a lightning counter-attack with six minutes left to settle a tentative encounter in which managers Roberto Mancini and Arsene Wenger both made 10 changes to their starting line-ups.
A lacklustre opening was suddenly brought to life when Adam Johnson cut in from the right and grazed the bar with a 20-yard piledriver.
Arsenal then spurned a great chance as Park Ju-young failed to make a clean connection to Francis Coquelin's cross and Costel Pantilimon tipped the ball to safety.
Pantilimon did well to palm over a drive from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who had another fierce effort beaten away by the Romanian.
Edin Dzeko hooked wide, but he started the move that led to City's winner as his raking pass was flicked on by Johnson into the path of Aguero, whose clinical low finish gave Lukas Fabianksi no chance.
Marouane Chamakh failed to connect with a near-post header in added time, leaving City to celebrate a place in the last four.
Liverpool booked their place in the semi-finals of the Carling Cup with a 2-0 victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Maxi Rodriguez and Martin Kelly netted for the Reds from Craig Bellamy assists in the second half to pile further pressure on Blues boss Andre Villas-Boas.
Both sides had penalty claims dismissed in the early stages with Chelsea defender David Luiz booked after he tumbled over Sebastian Coates' lunging tackle, while Luiz escaped punishment after appearing to nudge Andy Carroll in the back at the other end.
Referee Phil Dowd did point to the penalty spot midway through the first half after Alex handled Jose Enrique's cross under pressure from Carroll, but Carroll failed to convert the spot-kick as he drilled his shot straight at Blues keeper Ross Turnbull.
Frank Lampard then ballooned a 20-yard effort miles over for the hosts and Romelu Lukaku glanced a header wide before the interval.
Florent Malouda hit the bar from Lampard's cross after the restart with Luiz's close-range header from the rebound blocked by Coates.
But it was Liverpool who broke the deadlock in the 58th minute when Lucas released Bellamy down the right and the Welshman centred for Maxi to side-foot home from six yards.
Kelly made it 2-0 just five minutes later when he was left completely unmarked to nod in Bellamy's pinpoint free-kick from the left.
Nicolas Anelka and Fernando Torres spurned half-chances to pull a goal back in the closing stages, but the Reds stood firm for a comfortable victory.
No comments:
Post a Comment