Rulli Saves Two Penalties As Manchester City Beat Brighton, Reach EFL Cup Quarterfinals

 

Manchester City shrugged off a hard-fighting Brighton, winning 4-3 on penalties after a thrilling 2-2 draw, and advanced to the EFL (Carabao) Cup quarter-finals. 

Brighton were enterprising from the start, and attempted shots at the goal several times before they found a breakthrough. Meanwhile, Manchester City did not change their game plane and restored level terms.

Manchester City needed to stay in the game when Brighton took the lead in the 30th minute. Rutter picked out Malick Yalcouye inside the box, and the midfielder finished off from a close range to give his side the lead. Ten minutes later, Mateo Kovacic restored level terms. Phil Foden laid the ball into his path, and Kovacic struck a right footed effort from outside the box into the bottom-left corner. 

Shortly after the halftime break, Brighton regained the lead. Jaouen Hadjam slipped the ball to Rutter, who fired a right footed shot into the bottom right corner. 

City struggled to turn their possession into clear chances until the 72nd minute.  Rayan Cherki restored level terms, delivering a decisive shot from free-kick, but it ricocheted off Vitor Reis into the net. 

The closing minutes grew increasingly frantic, with Lewis Dunk and Wieffer both booked in stoppage time. Yankuba Minteh fired over in the 95th minute, and neither side could find the decisive goal. After the final whistle, the match moved to a penalty shootout.

After Kovacic missed his penalty, Brighton missed twice spot-kick as Rulli saved Dunk and Ayari's penalties to give Manchester City a 4-3. After twice coming from behind, City showed resilience to forced penalties, but it was Rulli who delivered when the pressure was at its highest.

Manchester City are the EFL Carabao Cup  defending champions. They won the title for the tenth title, defeating Arsenal 2-0 at Wembley Stadium in the 2025/26 season.