O'Reilly: 'I enjoyed showing everyone what I can do!' | OneFootball

Nico O'Reilly has expressed his delight after getting his name on the scoresheet in the 8-0 FA Cup third round victory over Salford City.

The Academy graduate was named in the starting line up by Pep Guardiola and rewarded the manager with a superb overall display in the unfamiliar position as a left-back.

O'Reilly scored our third of the evening just before the interval, controlling Jeremy Doku's pass expertly before drilling into the bottom corner.

Doku himself netted twice, whilst fellow Academy graduate James McAtee grabbed a hat-trick, added to by goals from Divin Mubama and Jack Grealish.

MATCH REPORT: CITY 8-0 SALFORD CITY

O'Reilly, who played the entire 90 minutes at the Etihad Stadium, expressed his happiness after the victory.

"Yeah I enjoyed it a lot," he said.

"Got some minutes into my legs, to show everyone what I can do.

"Yeah I really enjoyed it. Same for McAtee. Yeah, he was top. Three goals, top."

The 19-year-old scored in pre-season last July against Barcelona, but his strike against Salford was his first senior competitive goal for the Club.

After a tough patch of results towards the end of 2024, Guardiola's side now have three wins on the bounce and O'Reilly stressed the importance of winning convincingly against League Two side Salford.

"It was very important after the spell we’ve had in the last couple of weeks," he declared.

"I thought it was very important in a game like this to show what we can actually do."

The victory secures our passage into the fourth round of the competition, for which the draw will take place on Sunday 12 January following the conclusion Arsenal and Manchester United’s tie which kicks-off at 15:00 (UK).