Stoke boss Mark Hughes saluted unlikely hero Marc Muniesa after watching him fire the club into the Capital One Cup fourth round at Sunderland.
The 22-year-old former Barcelona full-back struck twice at the Stadium of Light as the Potters fought from behind to secure a 2-1 victory against last season's beaten finalists.
Hughes said: "Apparently he's only scored about three goals in his whole career, so he has nearly matched it.
"Given his pedigree, we know he's a technically-gifted football player and it doesn't matter where I play him - I have played him centre-half, I have played him left-back, he has probably got the ability to play in midfield as well, but he hasn't had those opportunities.
"But because of his technical ability when he finds himself in different areas of the field, he is able to make the right decisions and affect the game, which is what happened with his goals."
It had all started so well for Sunderland who took a 16th-minute lead through Jozy Altidore, just the United States international's third goal in 45 appearances for the club.
But Stoke had a secret weapon at their disposal in the shape of Muniesa, who dragged them back into it with a 31st-minute equaliser and then won it 18 minutes from time with a rasping drive.
Things might have panned out rather differently, however, had City midfielder Steven Nzonzi, who was sent off in the Barclays Premier League encounter between the two clubs on Wearside last season, suffered a similar fate after clashing with Jack Rodwell nine minutes before the break.
Rodwell felled Nzonzi with an ugly challenge and the victim reacted with fury as he grasped Rodwell by the throat, although referee Mike Dean adopted a lenient approach in only cautioning the pair.
Hughes said: "I thought it was a poor tackle. It's all about interpretation, but I thought there was a little bit of intent there, which is not really what you want to see.
"Steven reacted because maybe the boy pushed his head towards him and that's the reason he reacted, so that was unfortunate.
"But I thought Mike Dean was excellent on the night, I thought he dealt with that situation really, really well. I thought it would have been harsh on both teams if they both had lost players given the circumstances, but you don't like to see that.
"But thankfully Mike made the right decision."
Opposite number Gus Poyet, however, saw the incident differently.
Asked if he would seek an explanation, the Uruguayan said: "No. I won't ask them because I don't like the answers, I don't.
"When it's something everyone agrees on and you don't get that agreement, I don't like it. When it's a way out, an explanation, when it's a 'might', a 'maybe', a 'probably', a 'possibly', I don't like it.
"That's one of the things I hate the most nowadays, when people use words to get away from situations. If you grab someone around the neck, you grab them around the neck.
"That's the bottom line and the rules say it's a red card. That's the bottom line, the rest doesn't matter. There are no explanations, there are no excuses, it doesn't matter what happened before or happens after.
"Everybody saw it - I saw it, the referee saw it, the fourth official, you saw it. It's simple, so why? I am not going to ask. I don't want 'mights', 'probably', 'possibly', 'the angle'."
Source: PA
