Michael Plant gives his reaction to Manchester City's Carabao Cup win over Watford, plus offers the latest on Rodri's injury situation.
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00:00Manchester City 2 Watford 1 here at the Etihad Stadium in the third round of the
00:04Carabao Cup. A game that City played pretty well in, dominated for long spells
00:08as you would expect against the Championship side. Got the goals pretty
00:11early, thought it was going to be a relatively routine game here but ultimately
00:15actually turned into a couple of jitters at the end. A few nervy City fans in the
00:19final minutes because Watford did produce a superb goal in the 86th minute
00:24with Tom Ince curling one in to the far corner. As I say he set up a little bit
00:28of a nervy end and Watford didn't actually create any chances after that. I think
00:31City will perhaps be disappointed for all their dominance, the amount of passes
00:34they had, the amount of time they spent on the ball. They didn't actually manage to
00:37kill this game off earlier. Jeremy Doku did get the ball rolling after just five
00:41minutes. Defensive mix-up, it's not what you want when you come here to the Etihad
00:44Stadium. But in-handed City the ball in the final third. Grievous lay it in Doku
00:49cut back in his right foot and a lovely shot into the bottom corner. City
00:53had a number of chances in and managed to find the second goal via Mateus Nunes.
00:57His first goal for Manchester City actually hadn't joined from Wolves last
01:00summer after his first goal in 34 appearances. He had a, I think he played
01:05well actually on the night, took a lovely goal in his left foot from the edge of
01:08the box, struck into the bottom corner. From there you really did think City
01:11would push on and get a few more but they didn't manage to do it. Savino had a
01:15fantastic chance where he ran almost three-quarters the length of the pitch
01:18but couldn't just quite put the finishing touches to it with the shot
01:21hitting the post. He played really well when he came on and also saw a shot
01:24headed off the line. Jack Grealish probably should have scored as well.
01:27Good chance he set up. Phil Fulton playing his first, well starting his
01:30first game of the season for City. He had a chance saved as well and it went
01:34into the final stages. City just 2-0 up. In scored that goal and as I say a
01:37little bit of nerves at the end but ultimately City came away relatively
01:41comfortably. Although I think they'll be disappointed as I say that there was any
01:45kind of jeopardy at all in the final few minutes of the game. Doc Grealish
01:48probably the standout player. Rico Lewis played really well as well. Savino,
01:52Goku I thought played well. Nunes as well but yeah City some good performances
01:56but look they were in second gear all game, all night. A lot of changes, nine
02:00changes from the weekend. A number of youth players coming in, a number of fringe
02:03players coming in. So it was not surprising and Caden Braithwaite,
02:07actually a 16-year-old, made his Manchester City debut at left-back. Thought he did
02:10well. A couple of maybe difficult moments including a bit of an awkward moment for
02:13Watford goal that was disallowed. I think he was a bit fortunate in that as he was out
02:16muscled but ultimately you know certainly didn't let himself down in his
02:21first taste of senior football and overall a good night for City. All set
02:24against the backdrop of this injury to Rodri which we still have no
02:28confirmation about what exactly the full extent of that problem is. Of course
02:32reports suggest it's an ACL injury for the midfielder. At this stage Guardiola
02:37as I say hasn't confirmed anything but has confirmed that he's gonna have
02:39surgery. Has confirmed he's gonna be out for a long time so I think we can all but
02:43say that when the confirmation comes it's not gonna be a huge
02:47surprise from a City perspective. But Guardiola, I just saw from his press
02:52conference and he was really bullish about Rodri being out. Described him as
02:56irreplaceable. Said he is the best midfielder in the world but said I will
02:59find the solutions without him. That was a really interesting press conference
03:02actually from Guardiola. He was really, I don't know, almost seemed motivated at the
03:06thought of trying to find a solution without Rodri. Albeit he's obviously a
03:10problem he would rather do without. But interesting from him. I think we're gonna
03:14get confirmation probably tomorrow at this stage on what the exact nature of
03:18the injury is. Guardiola just said they want to make the final kind of
03:21confirmation or test to get the full extent of it. He did say this may be not
03:24quite as bad as first fear but still looks like it's gonna be a very long
03:27term one for City. They're gonna have to find a solution without a player who's
03:31seen as one of the best in the world. Big interesting couple of months coming up
03:34for City. How are they gonna cope without him and it's certainly yeah a lot to
03:38keep on top of over the next couple of months.