Floyd Samba lit up this tie with a debut that will have the 17-year-old grinning for a while as it featured a superb goal in each half that ensured Manchester City advanced to face Brighton in the last 16 of the Carabao Cup.
Samba has an older brother by a year, Tyrone, who is also in the academy, their father being Christopher, the former Blackburn and Queens Park Rangers defender.
Samba showed all of his slick forward game that brings speed, awareness, athleticism and a poacher’s eye for goal.
For Enzo Maresca, this sixth successive win maintains a 100% record for his nascent City project, barring the Community Shield, and points to how the manager is shrugging off any doubts about succeeding Pep Guardiola.
City host Sunderland here on Sunday. Defeat Régis Le Bris’s side and Maresca will enjoy his three-week international break. You would not wager against them doing so – City are improving with each outing.
Many teams are blown away by City at the Etihad so for the 14th-placed Championship side to initially tap the ball about, have Darlin Yongwa cruising down the left while causing Allan, on debut, to fling himself to the ground to block the left-back’s cross was positive.
So, too, limiting City to an aimless Rico Lewis shot and a buccaneering Mateo Kovacic run that foundered in Norwich’s area.
Maresca configured his team in a fluid formation that had the pacy Samba at the sharp end. This intrigued considering only Rayan Cherki was retained from Sunday’s 1-0 victory at Manchester United. Geronimo Rulli, the keeper, was a third player making his first appearance – so this was a novel XI.
Maresca reaped a first dividend from this when, from the left, Nico O’Reilly’s cross was fumbled by the visiting goalkeeper, Daniel Grimshaw. The ball dropped to Allan and he delivered back across the area for Samba to flick in a cute header to open the scoring.
Moments later, City doubled the lead. This time Samba, inside his half, laid off to Ayyoub Bouaddi, the midfielder hit the ball into Cherki and, as Grimshaw advanced, he beat the keeper to his right.
Seeing this from the touchline, Philippe Clement hoped his side were not about to crumble in the first half’s closing minutes. So when Samba, running in, was thwarted by a Grimshaw dive at his feet, Norwich’s manager was relieved.
Norwich, though, ended the period chasing City: an exhausting task illustrative of the total control the home side exerted.
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In a sparsely attended tie, this was precisely what Maresca wished. It also meant that his main man, Cherki could be rested, as Ryan McAidoo replaced him for the second half.
Soon, Allan joined Samba in scoring on his City bow. Positioned on the left now, the Brazilian zig-zagged in, beat Sam Field once, cut back to beat him again, then found the far corner of the net with a strike that winded Norwich again.
It was rosy for City though. Maresca, will have been displeased at seeing, almost instantly after the restart, a Norwich raid that swooped along the left and had the ball bouncing to Kellen Fisher in the area, who missed the target.
Now, the right-back’s profligacy was immediately punished when Samba made himself a cert for the player-of-the-match award with a second. He collected the ball inside Norwich’s area and shaped a sweet finish into the far right corner, the helpless Grimshaw watching the ball sail by.
Maresca was delighted with this and, too, the wider picture of how his team executed the gameplan. With each win he oversees, the Italian’s authority and stature grow, his appointment appearing ever shrewder.
The game’s close was lit up by McAidoo’s sharp finish: an apt end to an impressive City victory.