The flames of a historic quadruple for Manchester City kept roaring, as goals from Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling saw The Citizens breeze into the fifth round of The FA Cup with a 2-0 win over Cardiff City.

It was all systems go from the off for Pep Guardiola's men with De Bruyne's eighth minute opener but were shaken slightly by Claudio Bravo's howler forced upon him by Junior Hoilett, but City stepped up a gear as the half went on with Bernardo Silva's disallowed effort before Sterling headed home his 19th goal of the campaign.

The second-half lacked very little in the way of chances or even talking point with Neil Warnock's side seemingly happy to take what would be considered a good defeat from the Premier League front-runners, Hoilett went close again as the game went on but a late dismissal for Joe Bennett rounded off quite the afternoon in the Welsh capital.

Starting off brightly

Many will have already had City to ease into the fifth round of the world's oldest cup competition before a ball was kicked at The Cardiff City Stadium, and those predictions were proved right fair quickly as they took the lead just eight minutes in.

İlkay Gündoğan set the scene as he won the free-kick after he was thwarted from following up his own effort, De Bruyne eyed the set piece and produced a piece of genius as he hit a low free-kick under the jumping wall which left Neil Etheridge helpless.

Asking questions at both ends of the field

Despite falling behind it didn't seem to shake Warnock's side all that much, and they nearly took advantage of Claudio Bravo's continued ineptness in goal eight minutes after falling behind.

Hoilett decided to let one rip from 35 yards which the Chilean seemed to have covered, but the keeper somehow managed to let it slip through his grasp but managed to prevent it going over the line despite the cry's from the Cardiff faithful.

Silva looked to have made it two on the quarter-hour mark as he sent an unstoppable effort into the roof of Etheridge's net from 25 yards, but after consultation referee Lee Mason correctly chalked the effort off as Leroy Sané was believed to be in the line of sight of the keeper.

A rare headed goal

It did look like a case of when not if City would double their score and once again it was the familiar face of Sterling, Danilo did well to win possession and release Silva on the wing. The Portuguese international produced an excellent cross into the danger zone, it was on a plate for an unmarked Sterling to head home six yards out for his first headed goal since Boxing Day 2015.

Ending on a sour note

Both sides seem content with the scoreline that had been set out in the first period, neither side really put themselves forward but it was the home side who came closest as they looked for some sort of consolation.

Hoilett looked to have another crack in the 68th minute as he hit a well-struck effort from the left-hand side of the area, Bravo was once again beaten by the Canadian's effort but it whizzed inches over the crossbar.

​The biggest incident didn't arrive until added-time but it wasn't good for the home side as they were reduced to ten men, it can be argued it should have come at the end of the first period with Bennett's challenge on Sané but his late lunge on Brahim Díaz gave Mason no choice.