Sergio Aguero rescued Pep Guardiola’s Quad dream by inspiring a Manchester City fightback in south Wales.
The Blues were hit by both Storm Hannah and Storm Celina in the first half as their former youth player helped the Championship side to a deserved 2-0 half time lead.
Fabian Delph had another FA Cup shocker – after his red card contributed to City’s demise at Wigan last season, this time he gave away a penalty.
But Aguero ’s arrival as a substitute brought a turnaround.
His ability to draw in defenders handed Bernardo Silva a goal and then Kun bagged the equaliser from the spot – although it will go down as an own goal after hitting the goalkeeper – before diving in to head home the winner in front of the 3,300 ecstatic travelling fans.
Phil Foden would normally have been a shoo-in for a game like this, especially given the fact he was City’s leading scorer in the competition going into the game after starring roles at Oxford and Newport.
The fact he was named on the bench, with Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva and David Silva asked to go one more time before the international break, tells its own story.
Guardiola does trust Foden, but he is still an 18-year-old with a lot to learn, especially in the defensive side of the game.
The manager did make changes, but bringing in the Brazil number nine, the £60million club record and England international Delph should not really be a “weakening”.
It proved to be exactly that as Gabriel Jesus and Riyad Mahrez were ineffective and Delph a liability – the latter two were hauled off and Jesus stayed on to conjure up an incredible miss.
City arrived in south Wales expecting that they would have to ride out another storm, just as they did down the road at Newport in the last round.
A hostile Welsh crowd, their nationalist fervour cranked up by their Six Nations rugby triumph earlier in the day, was backed up by Storm Hannah, sweeping in off the Irish Sea.
It made for a classic set-up for a shock, but City went about their business in the usual fashion.