In the spirit of the FA Cup on a day of shocks, Championship side Middlesbrough pulled off a heroic 2-0 win at the Etihad Stadium.
Manuel Pellegrini's side, who returned from a five-day training trip to Abu Dhabi on Friday evening, looked to show some improvements following their loss last weekend against Arsenal at home. Middlesbrough, with the Championship's best defensive record was looking to show that type of play against the defending Premier League champions.
In the first half, Tomlin had an early goal rightly ruled out for offside against Bamford in the build-up. However, despite having the best chance of the first half, the visitors were thankful to goalkeeper Tomas Mejias - in for the rested Dimi Konstantopoulos - for six excellent first-half saves.
Mejias, who was part of Pellegrini's squad at Real Madrid while he was the manager, was able to deny Aleksandar Kolarov, Stevan Jovetic, James Milner, Sergio Aguero and David Silva in the final 20 minutes of the first half as their several attempts on goal were stopped by the young Spainard. It provided and showed the defensive work on how Middlesborough were able to take control in the back throughout the entire match as they were unable to take many chances going forward in that half.
In the second half, Boro got their chance when in the 53rd minute a Fernando back pass fell short, allowing Albert Adomah to tackle the ball beyond keeper Willy Caballero, and as the Brazilian was unable to make a clearance which was rolled towards the line, the ball rebounded in off to Patrck Bamford to give Boro the surprising lead.
Middlesbrough then had a number of chances, the first two of which ended with Caballero recovering from his own horrible clearance to stop Tomlin and Grant Leadbitter with a double save. Adomah failed with an attempted lob over the goalkeeper after a terrific crossfield pass from the impressive Tomlin, who hit the post moments later following a beautiful drag-back turn, before Caballero palmed out a Jelle Vossen volley.
Frank Lampard came on as a substitute late on in the 66th minute and might have earned a replay with a deflected curling shot that struck the inside of the post late on. Any of those fears would be put aside when in the last minute of the match, Adomah broke away and fed the ball Kike to fire past Caballero and secure the victory and the shock result for the vistors.
Manchester City have now been knocked out 2 compeititons so far this season and now with the Premier League still in the mind and their Champions League draw against Barcelona next month, it will be hard for the side to be able to achieve some type of silverware this season. Manchester City's next match are against league leaders Chelsea next where only 5 points stand them and given the shocking results from both clubs today (Bradford 4-2 victory over Chelsea), they will look to go all out for some result next Saturday at Stamford Bridge.
Middlesbrough on the other hand, will take on Brentford on the same day with the idea to continue their run to the Championship playoffs or even direct promotion to the Premier League.