Chris Maduewesi
Member
Lightning struck twice as Manchester City for the second successive season suffered another loss to Wigan Athletic in the English FA Cup.If there was an opportunity for City to avenge last year's final loss to Wigan,it was now but they couldn't,losing 1-2 to their visitors in front of their home fans at the Etihad stadium.
Wigan had a game plan that perfectly worked for them,showing no respect for City who were the overwhelming favourites to qualify for the semifinals of the competition.
Martin Demichelis gave away a penalty after fouling Marc-Antoine Fortune in the box,and Jordi Gomez sent Costel Pantilimon the wrong way to open the scores for Wigan.
From then onwards,it was expected that City would have responded and make their presence felt,but they were a little bit casual with their play.
City were left with more work to do after Wigan went 2-0 up just two minutes into the second half.
James McArthur put in a low cross and James Perch reacted faster than Gael Clichy to put his side two goals up.
City threw on the trio of Edin Dzeko,David Silva and James Milner to try and salvage something.
Emerson Boyce was immense for the lactics,defending astutely and making a timely block on Dzeko,who even spurned a good chance to score a goal.
Samir Nasri drew one back for City in the 68th minute and there was a feeling of a comeback.
City missed chance after chance but credit to Wigan who held on nicely and was not cowed into bowing to submission.
They will be making a return to Wembley looking to defend their trophy.
After the game Manchester City manager Mauel Pellegrini admitted that it is disappointing to lose at home to Wigan
"It's disappointing because we cannot be eliminated from the FA Cup at home by Wigan. We had three or four chances to get a draw," Pellegrini said on BT Sport
"I don't like to divide the defence and attack. We could have done more with the two Wigan goals, but we didn't do enough in attack until they were 2-0 up.
Semifinal fixtures
Arsenal vs Wigan
Hull City vs Sheffield