What happened...
Manchester City will face Chelsea in the FA Youth Cup final for a third successive season after a 9-2 aggregate thrashing of Stoke City in the semi-final.
Lukas Nmecha’s second hat-trick of the tie completed the job at Stoke’s bet365 Stadium after last month’s 6-0 first leg win.
City carried on from where they left off in the first leg when Luke Bolton collected Ed Francis’ ranging ball and drilled his cross for Nmecha to divert home inside just three minutes.
Stoke seemed to settle after that point and were rewarded as Jordan Greenidge guided Thomas Edwards’ cross past Aro Muric in the City goal.
City were in no mood to be held though and Lukas Nmecha’s rifled finish moments after the restart restored their lead on the night.
Nmecha completed his hat-trick and City’s scoring shortly before the hour mark after being brought down inside the box. The England U19 striker dusted himself down and hit his penalty low and hard past Mitchel Allen.
The hosts found time for one last consolation strike though, as Greenidge squeezed an effort past two covering defenders on the line.
If last month’s performance was exhilarating, this can be classed as a professional, clinical showing from Lee Carsley’s youngsters.
View highlights of the first leg below...
What it means...
City will face Chelsea in the two-legged FA Youth Cup final for the third successive season.
Dates, locations and ticket details to be confirmed in due course.
Key moment...
Luke Bolton’s cross for Nmecha’s opening goal was as cutting and incisive as we have come to expect from the right winger this season. That goal ended any small Stoke hopes of revival before they had even really got going.
Man of the match...
Lukas Nmecha - Six goals in the tie and ten in the tournament for Nmecha, who was yet again the difference maker for City’s youngsters. The striker spends most of his time with the Elite Development Squad and it shows when he drops to U18s level.
The England U19 star dominates defenders physically and has the intelligence to find enough space to make his lethal finishing ability useful.
How they lined up...
Arijanet Muric continued in goal.
Matt Smith was at right-back with Joe Coveney and captain Ed Francis in the centre and Jacob Davenport at left-back.
Sadou Diallo sat behind creative central midfielders Tom Dele-Bashiru and Phil Foden.
Luke Bolton and Brahim Diaz were the wingers on either side of central striker Lukas Nmecha.
