Brighton create more than City, then lose the penalty shootout

Brighton made more of the chances at the Etihad, but a penalty shootout sent Manchester City through.

Ten spot-kicks settled this League Cup tie at the Etihad Stadium after the sides finished level. Manchester City scored four of their five and Brighton three, which sends City through, and the sequence ended with Lewis Dunk's miss. Brighton were the side who made more of the match itself, and that is what makes the shootout such a bitter result for them.

Georginio Rutter was at the heart of Brighton's play, with a goal at 47 and an assist for Malick Yalcouyé's opener at 30. Mateo Kovačić and Vitor Nunes answered for City at 40 and 72, the first set up by Phil Foden and the second by Rayan Cherki. Rutter's rating of 8.5 was the highest in the match, and it reflects how often he was involved in Brighton's goals.

The chance figures are where Brighton's case is strongest. Expected goals, a rough measure of how good a side's chances were, where 1 would mean a near-certain goal, gave Brighton 2.08, against a league average of 1.49 per side. City's 0.91 sat well under that, and Brighton's 17 shots also topped the league average of 13.4 per side. Nine of Brighton's shots came from inside the box, against seven for City, and six of Brighton's efforts were on target.

City had 57% of the ball and completed 85% of their passes, against Brighton's 82%, so they controlled possession in the ordinary sense of the word. Their shots were close to the league norm, but only three were on target, which made Kovačić's goal at 40 count for even more. Rayan Cherki took six of those shots himself and set up Vitor Nunes's goal, and his rating of 7.7 reflects a busy evening.

Brighton were the more combative side. They committed 20 fouls to City's three, picked up three yellow cards to City's one, and won seven corners to City's three. Those are the kinds of numbers that show where a match was being fought for, even when the scoreboard shows only two goals each.

Recent form points the same way. City have won four of their last six and conceded twelve in that run. Brighton have won four, drawn one and lost one, and kept five clean sheets in those six games, the defeat being the only one in which they conceded.

Brighton have scored fourteen goals in those six games, and they are out of the League Cup.

Player of the matchG. Rutter1 goal · 1 assist8.5

M. Kovačić1 goal8.2

R. Cherki1 assist7.7

M. Yalcouyé1 goal7.7