Santa Cruz has had to wait this long for his first start because of recurrent knee problems but here, finally, was evidence of why City paid £17m to sign him from Blackburn Rovers in July. The Paraguayan scored City's second goal with a classic centre-forward's header before Joleon Lescott, Carlos Tevez and the substitute Michael Johnson ended Scunthorpe's hopes of an upset with second-half goals.
Johnson's left-foot strike was especially popular with the crowd as he continued his recovery from a year of injury issues and this was also a productive night for Stephen Ireland, the midfielder opening the scoring with a stylish goal after missing the previous four matches. There was an accomplished debut for Sylvinho at left-back while the fit-again Vincent Kompany impressed alongside Lescott in the centre of a defence that was seldom threatened apart from Jonathan Forte's breakaway goal.
James Ducker, The Times
Most squads would have been sorely depleted by the absence, through an assortment of long-term injuries, of Roque Santa Cruz, Vincent Kompany, Michael Johnson and Benjani Mwaruwari, but it says everything about the strength and depth in Hughes’s squad that he has barely missed that quartet of players so far this season.
That said, City will be all the stronger for having them fit and available, as Scunthorpe would testify. Having just about held their own during the first period, the visiting team were brutally beaten down in the second, ultimately overwhelmed by vastly superior opponents. By the end, you almost felt sorry for Nigel Adkins’s team.
Mark Ogden, Daily Telegraph
A trip to Wembley and a trophy. No matter what the final cost to Sheikh Mansour, if Hughes and his players can achieve that particular double this season, it will be regarded as money well spent by Manchester’s long-suffering supporters.
Recent League Cup defeats at the hands of Doncaster, Chesterfield and Brighton only serve to emphasise the trouble Manchester City have had with cup football.
Chris Wheeler, Daily Mail
When City's owners dream of eclipsing United and lifting trophies, it is unlikely Scunthorpe and the Carling Cup are what they have in mind.
But, for the time being, they would settle for any tangible return on their vast investment, and a comprehensive win at Eastlands saw Manchester City comfortably into the quarter-finals of a competition that brought the club its last silverware nearly 34 years ago.
Jon Culley, The Independent
Aside from a momentary scare when Scunthorpe, who fancy themselves as a footballing side, had the front to equalise midway through the first half, this was a cruise for City, who may be regarded now as a force in the game but whose appearance in the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup will be only their fourth in the competition in 20 years.
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