Samba revels in ‘mind-blowing’ Man City debut against Norwich

Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.

Floyd Samba described his Manchester City debut as “mind-blowing” after his brace helped see off Norwich City as the Citizens reached the fourth round of the EFL Cup. 

Samba, along with Geronimo Rulli and Allan, all made their debuts for City, and the trio wasted little time in making an impression during a 5-0 thrashing of the Canaries. 

Enzo Maresca’s side took the lead in the 29th minute through Samba, who headed into the bottom-left corner after Allan delivered the ball into a dangerous area. 

Rayan Cherki doubled City’s advantage three minutes later after being teed up by Ayyoub Bouaddi, and the hosts pulled further clear after the break. 

Allan marked his debut with a goal with a brilliant left-footed finish before Samba doubled up in the 54th minute after capitalising on Norwich’s attempts to play out from the back. 

The win was sealed by Ryan McAidoo in the 90th minute, but the day belonged to Samba, who ended the match by scoring with both of his shots on target.

“Right before the game yesterday, the day before, I knew there would be an opportunity to get some minutes for the first time with the first team – to make a debut like that is mind-blowing,” Samba told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“I couldn’t believe it myself – but that’s just the beginning. I’ve got a big career ahead of me. It was a great debut. I couldn’t be happier right now.

— Manchester City (@ManCity) September 17, 2026

“Being my first senior debut, you have to expect everything to go well, the intensity, the level of players, everything goes up, and you have to be able to match it and cope with it, and I think I did well with that.

“Coming from the 21’s to first-team training, that’s a big jump – the sessions are more tiring, you have to run more – they demand more of you, and you have to cope with it.

“I spoke to all of them [the first-team players], they’ve all been brilliant with me – before the game, giving me advice, like ‘play your game, be you’ – those words gave me confidence and helped me score those two goals today.

“I can’t wait – recover now, rest, the team goes again – training tomorrow and then Sunderland on the weekend. Everyone has to be prepared for that.”

City have now progressed from 19 consecutive EFL Cup ties against lower-league opponents, since going out to Brighton on penalties in the 2008-09 second round.

And Fabian Hurzeler’s side will be their opponents in the next round after they came from two goals down to knock out City’s rivals Manchester United on Wednesday. 

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