Brilliant Bernardo Silva fires Manchester City past Newcastle and into FA Cup semi-finals

A brace from the Portuguese winger gave Pep Guardiola's side a 2-0 win against Newcastle United

Manchester City are the second team into the semi-finals of the 2023/24 FA Cup after Bernando Silva's first half double gave the Citizens a 2-0 win over Eddie Howe's struggling Newcastle United outfit.

The opening goal game in the 13th minute when Silva picked up the ball with acres of space as Newcastle's defenders stood off him. Bad mistake. Seizing the chance to drive into the box, the diminutive Portuguese midfielder did just that, cut on to his left-foot and got a shot away.

But in a cruel turn of luck for Martin Dubravka, the ball deflected off the defender and over the goalkeeper into the far corner to give Manchester City a harsh, but easily preventable, lead.

If you give City the advantage at home, they will take it with both hands and run away and that's what they did as they got their second goal in the 31st minute, also by way of a deflection from a Bernando Silva effort.

In a hint of de ja vu, he picked up the ball in space again and ran at the defense again. This time he chose to cut inside onto his left foot, but his shot struck the head of Sven Botman and left Dubravka despairingly helpless in the goal.

With Newcastle being 2-0 goals down, you would expect them to take more risks but they could not find a way into the game other than a chance for Alexander Isak in the 36th minute.

A cross fell to him in the box, but his driven effort was well-matched by Ortega and that's about as good as it got for Howe's side as Manchester City cruised their way to a 2-0 win in a match that was already wrapped up at half-time.

Neither of the goals were pretty but the display fromPep Guardiola's team was suffocating as they limited