• Manchester City 6-0 West Ham

Dzeko lost count of City's goals

Manchester City scored so many goals in their League Cup first leg semi-final thrashing of West Ham that Edin Dzeko forgot how many they mustered.

The Bosnian striker scored twice, notching City's fifth and sixth goals in a victory that takes them to the brink of a first League Cup final since 1976.

But he said: "It's not easy to win 5-0 at home against a Premier League team but we did. Was it 6-0? Oh."

And manager Manuel Pellegrini, who famously got his maths wrong in the Champions League game away at Bayern Munich when he thought City needed to win 5-2 to top the group - whereas 4-2 would have sufficed - sympathised.

"That happens sometimes," he smiled. "It was a brilliant performance. It doesn't matter if we were two, three or four up we kept playing the same way, always looking for more goals."

Alvaro Negredo scored a hat trick and Yaya Toure struck after a long solo run and Pellegrini allayed fears that the midfielder, who seemed hurt by a first-half challenge with Mohamed Diame and who went off in the second half, will spend a spell on the sidelines.

He added: "It was a precaution. Also he has some pain in his ankle. We will see tomorrow but we hope it's nothing serious."

Pellegrini felt that Negredo and Dzeko, who have not always flourished as a partnership, combined better than they had done in earlier games together.

And he praised the Spaniard, whose hat trick took his tally to 18 goals in his debut season for City, including 15 in 15 games at the Etihad Stadium.

Pellegrini added: "Playing better than the way he did today is not easy. He really played a complete game, not only because he scored three goals but because of his link with the midfielders.

"For me, it's not a surprise because I know the way he played in Spain for a lot of years. I think it's also important for Alvaro and Edin Dzeko to play well together because maybe in other games they were not playing as well."

Pellegrini did not accept the tie is over but added: "We have to play the second leg in London but I think the result we have here it is not absolutely finished but an important step. We are very near the final."

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