City held by Owls
Sunday, 07 Jan 2007 17:48
Georgios Samaras scored first for Manchester City
Two goals in 60 seconds saw Manchester City held to a 1-1 draw with Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup third round at Hillsborough.
Georgios Samaras, who replaced Bernardo Corradi in the starting line-up, looked to have booked City's place in the fourth round with a penalty on 78 minutes.
But Steven MacLean's strike through a crowd of players a minute later gave the Owls a replay.
The Championship side shaded a dire half with the only real chance falling to Chris Brunt who mis-kicked after being sent clear by young prodigy Glenn Whelan.
After the break, Wednesday bombarded the City goal with shots as goalkeeper Nicky Weaver tipped over Sylvain Distin's attempted clearance.
Samaras then cleared Lee Bullen's header off the goal-line from the resulting corner.
Darius Vassell wasted two gilt-edge chances to break the deadlock when put through on goal but veteran shot-stopper Mark Crossley was equal to both efforts.
Stuart Pearce's side took the lead 12 minutes from time after Micah Richards upended Graham Coughlan.
Goalkeeper Crossley guessed the right way but was unable to keep out Samaras' penalty.
Hillsborough erupted a minute later when MacLean blasted his shot home for the equaliser to deny City a fourth straight win.
In the closing stages, MacLean should have sealed victory but sliced his shot wide from Kenny Lunt's pull-back.
The replay will be played at Eastlands on either Tuesday 16th or Wednesday 17th January.