City beat Forest 2:0 playing with 10 men for the entire second half.
Josko Gvardiol, Manuel Akanji and Jeremy Doku return to the starting line-up in place of Nathan Ake, Sergio Gomez and Bernardo Silva.
Forest coach Steve Cooper changes half of the field players from the previous match and puts his trust in Willy Boly, Moussa Niakhate, Nuno Tavares, Serge Aurier and Nicolas Dominguez.
The hosts get their first chance of the match in the third minute, but goalkeeper Matt Turner deflects Julian Alvarez’s free-kick.
City open the scoring with their second chance of the match. It happens in the sixth minute. Rodri crosses the ball into the box to Kyle Walker, who makes a cross to Foden, who shoots into the near corner of the goal — 1:0.
In the 14th minute Forest concede again. Mateus Nunes makes a dash along the right edge of the penalty area, receives a pass from Foden and crosses to the goalkeeper’s box, from where Erling Haaland makes an irresistible header — 2:0.
It can’t be said that the Cityzens are attacking continuously, but almost all of their combinations are solid and threatening.
The Foresters can’t get a grip on the ball and on 31 minutes they nearly concede for the third time — Alvarez shoots from the edge of the box, but at the last moment Boly blocks his shot.
In the rest of the first half, the visitors make only a few timid forays and never trouble Ederson.
As the second half begins, Rodri has an altercation with Morgan Gibbs-White. Feeling someone else’s hands around his neck, the Forest player goes down with a delay and referee Anthony Taylor shows the brute a straight red card.
The game becomes considerably more difficult for the Cityzens. As soon as they are left with ten men, Forest gain control of the ball and start to apply pressure, but they have no chances.
Several times the hosts run off on the counterattack. In the 78th minute, Haaland has a great opportunity to end the intrigue in the match, but Erling inexplicably misses the target and shoots at the ball from near the goalkeeper’s box.
It’s not until extra time that Ederson gets a chance to show his skills and the Manchester City goalkeeper makes two good saves from Anthony Elanga and Boly.
A Rodri penalty disrupts the serenity of the match for City, but City’s margin of safety is too large to panic and falter in this situation.