City scrape past Brighton on penalties

Pep Guardiola's side trailed Brighton before dragging the tie level, and 2-2 after extra time meant another Carabao Cup night at the Etihad came down to spot-kicks. City held their nerve when it mattered and progress into the last eight of the competition they're defending, but Sky Sports' report on the night described the hosts as simply "lucky" to get through.

A scare City didn't need

For a club sitting top of the Premier League table, a Carabao Cup fourth-round tie against Brighton should, in theory, be routine. Instead Guardiola watched his side fall behind before finding a way back into extra time, and then watched the tie go the way these things so often do: to penalties, where the margins are thin and the credit is shared.

Brighton, for their part, have made a habit of being difficult to beat regardless of competition or opponent, and they gave City a proper fright before the shootout decided it.

The emptier problem

The scoreline wasn't the only talking point. Football365's take on the night leaned hard into the Etihad's attendance, with the piece framing the ground as "no laughing matter anymore" when it comes to midweek cup nights failing to fill seats. For a stadium with a 61,000 capacity, the gap between the size of the venue and the size of the crowd for a trophy defence has become impossible to ignore.

It's not a new conversation around City's cup nights, but a shootout win over Brighton in front of a half-empty home ground gives it fresh legs.

What it means

City move into the quarter-finals still chasing a repeat as Carabao Cup holders, and the result keeps that defence alive regardless of how scratchy the performance was. Guardiola's squad has the depth to rotate through domestic cup rounds without much disruption to the league form that has them top on 21 points from seven games. Whether that's enough to paper over nights like this one, when the opponent is Brighton and the game still needs penalties, is a different question entirely.