Man City 3
Vassell 11 Petrov 13 Benjani 74
Portsmouth 1
Utaka 24 Hreidarsson s/o 41
Manchester City 3 Portsmouth 1 April 20 2008
Manchester City took some of the heat off under-pressure manager Sven-Goran Eriksson with a convincing 3-1 victory over 10-man Portsmouth.
Eriksson was hugely displeased at City owner Thaksin Shinawatra's comments that he will "review" the club at the end of the season, and his players gave their answer in the best possible manner with a win that moves the Blues up to eight in the table.
Darius Vassell had opened the scoring after a bad mix-up between David James and Sol Campbell (11), Martin Petrov made it 2-0 only two minutes later before John Utaka's goal (24) gave the visitors hope again.
But after Herman Hreidarsson's red card five minutes before the break for hauling back Vassell, Portsmouth were up against it and their former striker Benjani ended the contest with 16 minutes remaining, slotting home inside James' near post.