Manchester City were knocked out of the FA Cup after their loss to Stoke at the Britannia Stadium on Wednesday. Stoke had already held City to a 1-1 draw when the two sides had met in a Premier League game a few days ago. In a very cagey affair, Stoke took the lead through Dave Kitson in the 79th minute but Bellamy equalised for City within two minutes to make it 1-1. In the 83rd minute, Emmanuel Adebayor was sent off for retaliating against Ryan Shawcross. The former United defender turned hero in extra time as he headed in a Rory Delap throw-in to give Stoke the lead. Mancini’s side were put out of their misery when Sanli Tuncay scored to give the Potters a 3-1 victory.

Unlike City, both Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa booked their place in the next round with wins over Bolton and Crystal Palace respectively. Tottenham cruised to a 4-0 win against the Trotters. Roman Pavlyuchenko continued his resurgence and scored twice. Own goals from Jaaskelainen and O’Brien also contributed to Bolton’s downfall.

Aston Villa secured a battling 3-1 win over Crystal Palace. John Carew scored two late penalties for the Villians. Agbonlahor had given Villa the lead late in the first half. But Darren Ambrose equalised from the spot for Palace before Carew took the game away from the Championship side.
In another closely contested replay, Reading progressed to the sixth round with a 3-2 win over a strong West Bromwich Albion side.