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Manchester City v Norwich City: Carabao Cup third round – live
Manchester City 5-0 Norwich City: Carabao Cup third round – as it happened
Teenager Floyd Samba scored twice on a sensational debut to help holders Manchester City thrash Norwich 5-0
Updated 17 Sept 2026Michael ButlerThu 17 Sep 2026 16.44 EDTFirst published on Thu 17 Sep 2026 13.00 EDTShareKey events- 17 Sept 2026Jamie Jackson's match report from the Etihad
- 17 Sept 2026Full-time: Manchester City 5-0 Norwich City
- 17 Sept 2026GOAL! Manchester City 5-0 Norwich City (McAidoo 90)
- 17 Sept 2026NORWICH GOAL DISALLOWED!
- 17 Sept 2026Musaba goes close!
- 17 Sept 2026GOAL! Manchester City 4-0 Norwich City (Samba 54)
- 17 Sept 2026GOAL! Manchester City 3-0 Norwich City (Allan 48)
- 17 Sept 2026Peeeeeeeep!
- 17 Sept 2026Half-time: Manchester City 2-0 Norwich City
- 17 Sept 2026GOAL! Manchester City 2-0 Norwich City (Cherki 32)
- 17 Sept 2026GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 Norwich City (Samba 28)
- 17 Sept 2026Peeeeeeep!
- 17 Sept 2026The teams!
Jamie Jackson's match report from the Etihad
That’s all from me. Congratulations to Manchester City, who march on and face Brighton in the fourth round. Commiserations to Norwich, who can now focus on the Championship campaign, starting with Bolton on Sunday.
Thank you for reading and for your emails. Bye!
17 Sept 202616.39 EDTFloyd Samba, City’s star debutant, speaks to BBC 5 Live:
double quotation markI knew I might get some minutes. To have a debut like that is mindblowing. I couldn’t believe it myself. But that’s just the beginning. I’ve got a great career ahead of me. But it was a great debut.
I’m so happy. I think I did well. The level went up, the players around me, the tempo. The intensity of the game was a big jump. They demand more of you.
I spoke to pretty much all the City players beforehand. They were all brilliant with me, gave me advice to be confident and be myself. Nico, Cherki and Bouaddi particularly helped me. Recover now and rest. The team goes again and we all have to be ready for Sunderland on the weekend.
17 Sept 202616.25 EDTManchester City face Brighton in the fourth round and there are cheers around the Etihad as the stadium announcer reminds tonight’s crowd of the Seagulls’ result on the other side of Manchester on Wednesday.
Brighton are obviously a different beast to Norwich, but I wonder if Maresca will adjust his starting XI accordingly or continue to use his academy players in this competition. It would be a shame if Samba and McAidoo don’t continue to get opportunities.
17 Sept 202616.23 EDTMaresca is all smiles as he greets his City players, with a special smile for Samba.
Fair play to the Norwich fans, who never stopped singing and give a standing ovation to their side, despite the 5-0 scoreline. They face a long journey home to East Anglia.
17 Sept 202616.19 EDTFull-time: Manchester City 5-0 Norwich City
Floyd Samba: a star is born.
17 Sept 202616.19 EDT90 min: Two minutes added on here.
17 Sept 202616.19 EDTGOAL! Manchester City 5-0 Norwich City (McAidoo 90)
O’Reilly gets free on the left. He centres for Lewis, who plays a sensational dummy to completely fool the Norwich defenders, and McAidoo arrives perfectly at the back post to sidefoot a finish into the corner. Three City academy products combining there for a flourishing finish.
87 min: A loose backpass from Khusanov and Touré is nearly onto it, but Rulli springs out of goal quickly to clear the danger. Good goalkeeping from the former Marseille and Villarreal stopper.
17 Sept 202616.15 EDT85 min: The game is winding down now. Both teams will want to leave here without any injuries. Eyes on the league campaigns.
17 Sept 202616.13 EDT83 min: Norwich make another change: Schwartau on for Kvistgaarden.
17 Sept 202616.11 EDT80 min: City have wrestled back a bit of control. O’Reilly feels like a senior player for City now. It’s crazy to think he only really broke into the side a couple of years ago.
17 Sept 202616.09 EDT78 min: A word for Allan, another of City’s debutants. He wasn’t cheap, coming for £34m from Palmeiras, but there were definitely flickers of quality. Yongwa gave Allan a rough time in the opening minutes but the Brazilian finished with a goal and an assist, despite not playing particularly well. He’ll be happy overall.
76 min: Norwich are definitely finishing the stronger. It is perhaps forgivable when City are 4-0 up, but there isn’t much of the classic control that was always a trademark of the Pep era. I suspect that Maresca will be a little bemused at City’s performance in the last few minutes.
17 Sept 202616.05 EDTNORWICH GOAL DISALLOWED!
74 min: Musaba releases Touré, just on, and the Norwich forward converts nicely with a bouncing finish past Rulli. Touré is judged to be offside. There’s no VAR tonight, but replays show that the officials made the correct call.
17 Sept 202616.02 EDT72 min: Both sides make further changes: City’s Allan is replaced by Kaden Braithwaite, another academy product.
For Norwich, Anis Ben Slimane and Bruno Alves come off for Ruairi McConville and Mohamed Toure.
17 Sept 202616.01 EDT70 min: City again close to a fifth! Lewis gets the byline and rips a heavy cross towards O’Reilly, who can’t divert the cross goalwards despite being six yards out. It was a very awkward ball to deal with, in fairness.
17 Sept 202615.59 EDT68 min: Samba at the heart of things again, the 17-year-old bumping off tackles and then finding McAidoo with a slide-rule pass. McAidoo closes in on goal and forces a good save out of Grimshaw but Samba – on a hat-trick, remember – cannot get to the rebound!
17 Sept 202615.55 EDT66 min: Norwich are enjoying their best spell of possession and the away fans are at it again, giving it the “olés”.
17 Sept 202615.54 EDTMusaba goes close!
64 min: From the corner, Khusanov clears the cross but the ball falls to Norwich sub Musaba, who loses his footing but still gets a shot away, just wide! Rulli was panicking, and dived to his left but wasn’t getting there.
17 Sept 202615.51 EDT63 min: Norwich win a corner and over in the away end, the Norwich fans give an ironic cheer, celebrating almost as though they have scored a goal. Jacob Wright, who was a City player until joining Norwich last year, gives a little smile as he trots over to take the corner.
17 Sept 202615.50 EDT62 min: Norwich make a sub: Crnac off, Musaba on.
17 Sept 202615.49 EDT60 min: “I was going to send you an email asking if Mancheter City were going to be like United and go 2-0 up and lose 3-2 but I won’t bother now!” writes Dave Manby.
Yeah, this one won’t be going to penalties.
17 Sept 202615.48 EDT58 min: Samba’s two goals have both been full of quality. The first was an instinctive header right into the far corner after Samba picked up a good position in the middle. His second goal was even better, casually stroking a bending shot (with a ridiculous amount of curl) past Grimshaw on the angle, a good 20 yards out. Remember, Samba is normally a midfielder.
17 Sept 202615.45 EDT56 min: The cameras pan to Christopher Samba, Floyd’s father, in the stands and the former Blackburn Rovers defender is wearing a smile as wide as the Colin Bell Stand, shaking his head in delight and disbelief at his son’s debut. A special moment.
17 Sept 202615.43 EDTGOAL! Manchester City 4-0 Norwich City (Samba 54)
A second goal for the 17-year-old! Absolute scenes! Norwich try to play out from the back but gift possession to Ait Nouri. The Algerian stumbles but gets a pass off to Samba, who takes a touch and bends the ball into the corner from 20 yards. That looked so simple. Or rather, Samba made it look simple. What a talent.
53 min: McAidoo has frightening pace, doesn’t he? The City substitute went past Yongwa – a Cameroon international I should add – like he wasn’t there.
17 Sept 202615.39 EDT51 min: An opening for Norwich! Yongwa canters forward on the overlap and delivers a fierce low cross across City’s six-yard box. Rulli gets an awkward hand on the cross, but the ball falls to Fisher on the rebound and the right-back fluffs his lines, slicing wildly. That was a real chance for the visitors.
17 Sept 202615.37 EDTGOAL! Manchester City 3-0 Norwich City (Allan 48)
City immediately get a third! Allan, City’s new £34m signing, makes an instant impact after switching to the left wing, cutting inside Field and then pivoting back onto his left, and arrowing a fine low finish into the far corner. I’m not sure that was elite defending but it was still an excellent goal to go with the Brazilian’s first-half assist.
Peeeeeeeep!
Both sides make half-time changes:
City bring on McAidoo for Cherki, which seems sensible. That means Allan moves to the left flank, McAidooto the right wing, and O’Reilly has moved from left-back to No 10, where Cherki was. Ait Nouri, who was playing left wing, goes to left-back. Phew. Got that?
In simpler Norwich developments, Diallo has come off for Maghoma on the left wing.
17 Sept 202615.23 EDTGot a minute to spare? Why not try our daily Premier League trivia game, On the ball? Every day a star player past or present is hidden behind nine clues. How many will you need to identify them? It’s available in the Guardian apps.
Play our football trivia game, On the ball
ShowThe Guardian's daily football game, On the ball, is now live in the app for both iOS and Android. Can you identify the Premier League star from the clues?
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