Updated at 21.45
KEVIN DE BRUYNE produced another excellent performance and Pablo Zabaleta was taken off on a stretcher as Manchester City reached the quarter-finals of the League Cup with a 5-1 win over Crystal Palace.
De Bruyne has been in excellent form since joining City from Wolfsburg in a club-record deal in August and scored one and set up another in a routine fourth-round victory on Wednesday.
But progression to the last eight may have come at a cost for Manuel Pellegrini’s men, with full-back Zabaleta taken from the field in the 55th minute with a brace on his knee. Zabaleta suffered a knee ligament injury in August and only made his first appearance of the season in the Champions League win at Borussia Monchengladbach late last month.
City took the lead in the 22nd minute at the Etihad Stadium through Wilfried Bony’s header before De Bruyne made it 2-0 after 44 minutes with his sixth goal in nine games.
Kelechi Iheanacho, scorer of a last-gasp winner in City’s 1-0 Premier League triumph at Palace in September, put the game beyond doubt and Yaya Toure hit home with a 76th-minute penalty.
Damien Delaney gave Palace something to cheer in the final minutes before 17-year-old Manu Garcia completed the rout.
