Roy Keane blasted Manchester City star Matheus Nunes for showing ‘no football intelligence’ in Manchester City’s FA Cup win against Bournemouth.
City endured a disastrous first-half at the Vitality Stadium in their quarter-final showdown in the Sunday sunshine with Erling Haaland missing a penalty before Bournemouth took the lead through Evanilson.
Haaland levelled the contest four minutes into the second-half before being forced off with an ankle injury on the hour.
Omar Marmoush replaced the Norwegian – scoring the goal that sent City into the semi-finals less then three minutes after coming off the bench with substitute Nico O’Reilly providing both assists in the 2-1 win.
While City made up for that underwhelming first-half showing, Nunes’ performance was criticised by Roy Keane and Ian Wright, on punditry duty for ITV.
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The Portugal international was again filling in at right-back for Pep Guardiola’s side but a woeful pass out from his own half was fed straight into the path of a Bournemouth’s Lewis Cook.
David Brooks’ cross was diverted back across goal by Justin Kluivert, with Nunes again at fault, failing to deal with the Dutchman’s near post run.
His ball back across goal found Evanilson who was on hand to prod home.
Nunes, a £53million signing from Wolves in 2023, was blasted by Keane, with the former Manchester United captain bewildered by his decision to try such a risky pass across the pitch that sparked the problems.
‘This is a basic error, he has the option to go straight back there but it is always a risk going across the pitch,’ Keane said.
‘Really poor from City. Why is he risking that? It is a lack of football intelligence.’
Former Arsenal star Wright was also not impressed with Nunes’ attempts to get back and rectify the first error.
‘This is exactly the scenario Bournemouth would have wanted,’ Wright said.
‘They want to push in, they want to put pressure on the fullbacks. Nunes is not a defender and he is not aware of the fact that Kluivert is behind him.
‘We are talking about a winger or midfielder playing right back, he’s not even made a challenge here because he is so out of position.’
Despite that overwhelming first-half, City stepped up in the second period, securing a win to set up a semi-final showdown with Nottingham Forest.
City return to action at home to Leicester City midweek.
They then head to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United having been beaten by Ruben Amorim’s side in the reverse fixture in December.
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