City 2, Brighton 2 (4-3 on Pens): Rulli Bailed Out a Back Line That Keeps Leaving the Door Open

LET'S FUCKING GO. Last kick of the shootout, Lewis Dunk steps up, and Gerónimo Rulli gets down to his left and saves it. City are through to the next round of the Carabao Cup, 2-2 after 90 and 4-3 on penalties, and I'm going to enjoy that for about 10 seconds before I say the thing that needs saying: we did not deserve to win this game on the run of play, and the only reason we're through is our backup keeper. Brighton outshot us 17 to 13, put 6 on target to our 3, and won the xG 2.03 to 0.76 per FotMob. They hit the post at 89' through Wieffer. Rulli made 4 saves in normal time and 2 more in the shootout. Questions about our defense have been there all year and tonight it was open season again. Rulli was the door that finally stayed shut.

And the first 5 minutes were beautiful. Really good linkup through Bouaddi, City building out with some incredible stuff, Brighton pressing and running like crazy and not getting near it. At 10' Cherki drove on the counter and won a free kick at the top of the box, the thing he does better than anyone in this squad: dribble straight at defenders and make them commit. At 13' he slid a through ball to Foden and Samba has to be alive there crashing the box. Foden and Cherki have a great understanding of each other's interplay, and that's the part of this game I'll remember fondly. Then from about 20' Brighton took over for a good 7 minutes. Yasin Ayari is a great player, Rutter was everywhere, and Rulli had to make 3 saves between 20' and 26' just to keep it level. At 30' it broke. Rutter set up Yalcouyé from close range, and Rico Lewis was in a terrible position again.

Brighton: 17 shots, 6 on target, 2.03 xG. City: 13 shots, 3 on target, 0.76 xG. We won.

Sofascore has Rulli at 22 of 44 passes and losing the ball 23 times, and I think that's a little aggressive. I don't believe he lost all of those. He was taking risks against a Brighton press that is genuinely tough to break down, and I thought his distribution was really good. That's not why he's the backup. He's the backup because Donnarumma has the big-game experience, and it's not that close yet. But Donnarumma better stay on his toes, because if he starts fucking around, this is the kind of night that gets your spot snatched.

I'll keep saying it until Maresca listens. Rico Lewis is not a right-back. His positioning is consistently costing us goals, last week against AEK and again tonight. Going forward he's fine, he gets into that channel and he completed 45 of 48 passes, because the ball was never the problem with him. Defending is. When Khusanov came on for him at 76' the difference was insane, non-league to legend. I didn't think Lewis played horribly. He's just not good enough at that position, and that's the position he keeps getting picked for. At this point, Lewis just needs to not play for us there.

Marc Guéhi was worse. Really bad in the first half, bad again in the second, giving the ball away and getting caught out defensively. Sofascore has him losing possession 11 times. He was wearing the armband and I've got him at a 31, which he earned. Do I bench my captain? Yes, for sure. And it's not Vitor Reis who replaces him in the pairing, even though Reis scored. It's Khusanov with Dias, or Khusanov with Gvardiol. Khusanov should start every game that matters from here on. The 47' goal summed it up: 2 minutes into the second half, Hadjam found Rutter on the left side of the box and he finished bottom right. To be fair it was a great goal, but that's the start of a half you want to control and we gave it away.

Kovačić got us level at 40', a perfect shot from the top of the box into the bottom left corner, and he was the best outfield player we had, 57 of 59 passes and a Sofascore 8.0. The move before it should have been stopped for a handball when Samba's through ball to Foden got handled. Foden still got on it and laid it off to Kovačić, so it didn't matter in the end, but if that doesn't go in we're talking about another missed call. Bouaddi was very, very good again, so of course he came off at half-time along with Samba. Samba wasn't doing enough. He's physical enough for a game of this caliber, he just isn't technical enough yet, and he looked lost in what was going on around him. Bouaddi I honestly don't understand, other than Maresca wanting to fit Aït-Nouri on the pitch and move O'Reilly into the middle. Aït-Nouri looked disinterested early, but he did well overall and was worth fitting in, and O'Reilly in midfield is the better player right now. McAidoo needs to learn some physicality and grit if he wants to make it. Doku came on for Allan at 61' and was a constant threat, 7 of 11 dribbles in 29 minutes. Then at 72' Foden won a free kick on the half-turn, Cherki took it, and Vitor Reis finished from the middle of the box to make it 2-2. Enzo came on at 87' and missed a tap-in off a gorgeous Foden ball in stoppage time. What the fuck is he good for.

Quick hits: Foden set up Kovačić, won the free kick for the equalizer, and opened the shootout with a perfect penalty. Cherki completed 6 of 7 dribbles and buried the penalty that put us 4-3 up. The officiating had some hugely questionable offside calls with no VAR to fix them, and Brighton committed 20 fouls to our 3.

The shootout itself: Foden, what a pen. Enzo, great pen. Doku, what a pen. Rulli hadn't been close on the first three and got a hand to De Cuyper's but couldn't keep it out. Kovačić's got saved by Steele and my stomach dropped. Then Rulli saved Ayari, Cherki buried his, and Rulli saved Dunk. That's the cup tie. A backup keeper with 4 saves in 90 minutes and 2 in the shootout did more to send us through than anyone in front of him, and if Guéhi and Lewis start the next big game in this back line, we're going to need him to do it again.