Floyd Samba shines despite Norwich defeat
Floyd Samba made a striking impression on his Manchester City debut with a brace in Thursday’s 5-0 Carabao Cup third round win over Norwich City. The 17-year-old, playing in an unfamiliar central striker role, opened the scoring with a glancing header from Allan’s cross before adding a second after capitalising on a Norwich turnover.
Son of former QPR and Blackburn defender Chris Samba, Floyd had an impressive record at youth level, contributing 34 goals last season and scoring a free kick in the FA Youth Cup final against Manchester United. City manager Enzo Maresca praised the teenager, saying, “(I'm) satisfied not just for the goals but for the performance too.”
“I asked him in the last three, four days - when I decided to play him as nine - he said he never played there. He is not a nine for sure, but he was good. He is young, full of energy, strong, can finish, can set [players up]. He made some good decisions in the first half. I am happy but they are young and we have to go slowly, slowly. Hopefully we can give him more chances.”
Darlin Yongwa reflects on heavy Man City loss
Darlin Yongwa was one of Norwich’s standout performers despite the 5-0 defeat at Manchester City. The left back believes the Canaries can take valuable lessons from the experience as they focus on their primary goal of Premier League promotion.
“We played against a very strong team, one of the best teams in the world. The most important thing for us today is to stay together, and we tried,” Yongwa told The Pink'un, The Pink'un. “They are a very difficult team. One player comes out, another one comes on. Same quality or even more quality. It's a very good team.”
He added, “The game is one that we lost, but we have a good feeling from that game. We will take more experience for the next games. We are trying to play in the Premier League, so it's important we play for that.”
Yongwa urges focus ahead of Bolton clash
Looking ahead to Sunday’s Championship fixture against Bolton Wanderers at Carrow Road, Yongwa stressed the importance of learning from the heavy defeat to improve the team’s promotion push.
Lessons from the Etihad
“Now, when we go back, we play against a team in the Championship. We know we need to do more if we want to get promoted,” Yongwa said. “As I say, if you want to have promotion, if you want to have that good team, we need to play against that level of team.”
He acknowledged mistakes but remained optimistic: “We made some mistakes, but it's like that. We gained more experience. Now, we know. I think if we play that game again, we won't concede five goals again because we have gained experience. We need to go ahead and focus on the next game.”