Manchester City capitalized on the sixth-minute sending-off of Fulham’s U.S. defender, Tim Ream, to sweep to a 4-0 win over the second-tier team and reach the last 16 of the FA Cup on Sunday.
Ream brought down Gabriel Jesus in the penalty area and was shown a straight red card, with City scoring from the resulting spot kick through Ilkay Gundogan and going on to dominate the game at Etihad Stadium.
However, despite monopolizing possession and creating chance after chance, the defending champions only added one goal - in the 19th minute through Bernardo Silva - before a late double from Jesus.
Silva’s strike from outside the area took City to 100 goals in all competitions this season - the first team in Europe’s top five leagues to get to that milestone.
Later Sunday, Manchester United and Liverpool face potentially testing away games against lower-league opposition in the fourth round.
United takes on third-tier Tranmere on the host’s heavily sanded field, before a likely second-string Liverpool lineup plays Shrewsbury, also of League One.
Jesus, playing ahead of Sergio Aguero in a team missing many of City’s first-choice players, took his tally to 16 goals for the season on an afternoon when he could easily have scored a hat trick.
The Brazil striker headed in Joao Cancelo’s right-wing cross in the 72nd minute, before nodding in from close range after Phil Foden’s shot was saved by busy Fulham goalkeeper Marek Rodak.
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