Manchester City held by Huddersfield on blank day for Sergio Agüero

In all probability neither side wanted a replay, though in an open and entertaining game neither team actually did enough to win. Manchester City’s thoughts will already be turning to Monaco in the Champions League, while promotion-chasing Huddersfield’s priorities were made clear by the stadium announcer at half time. “Pep Guardiola thinks this is the biggest match of our season,” he shouted. “We’ve got Reading on Tuesday so it isn’t even our biggest match of the week.”

Huddersfield’s David Wagner was predictably the more chuffed of the managers. “Who cares about one game more or less? I like to see my players in great environments and we deserve the rematch,” he said. “We showed bravery and aggression against a team of the highest quality.”

That was mostly true. City made eight changes for the tie, Town seven, though both managers like to mix things up a little when they can. One of Guardiola’s alterations saw the return of Claudio Bravo in goal, and the City manager will have been as gratified as the fans behind him in the away end to see the Chilean deal with the first shot he had to face. Rajiv van La Parra’s effort was not exactly scorching, it must be said, but Bravo has been so low on confidence of late it is almost a surprise to see him stop anything.

City came back with a chance of their own, Joel Coleman saving from Nolito then Mark Hudson clearing the follow-up from Jesús Navas off the line. The visitors should really have taken the lead midway through the first half when a route-one punt up the middle went all the way through to Sergio Agüero on the edge of the Huddersfield penalty area. For a split second, as Agüero reached the ball before backpedalling defenders and the onrushing goalkeeper, a first-time shot might have lifted the ball into an empty net. Agüero chose to take a touch, however, and had to turn away from goal in the process, so his eventual lob was guesswork and went high over the bar.

Part of the reason the sides seemed so evenly matched was that without Yaya Touré, David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne, City could neither hold the ball in midfield nor move it forward as smoothly as they would have liked. Fabian Delph has his admirers, but he looked rusty here and even at his best he is not in the same class as that trio. Wagner sent on two attacking substitutes after an hour in an attempt to win the game, Guardiola waited a few more minutes before introducing De Bruyne and Leroy Sané. Delph was booed as he made his way off the pitch; they have long memories in these parts for people who used to play for Leeds.

None of the substitutions made much difference. De Bruyne showed too much of the ball to Coleman when Navas played him into the area in the last 10 minutes, though City’s best chance had been and gone a short while earlier. Navas was not having the most influential of games, but he made his way to the byline on the right and sent a low cross right across the face of goal. Agüero should have been somewhere in the six-yard box ready to pounce but no City player was available to provide the touch that was required and the ball ran through to the opposite wing. Agüero did arrive in the right place for a corner at the end of added time, but he put a header wide and that was that.

“It is what it is,” Guardiola said, after experiencing both Yorkshire and earning a Cup replay for the first time. He also declined to comment on reports that a plastic bottle was thrown at his substitutes: “I am new in your beautiful country, I don’t want to be banned.”