Manchester City faced a must win in the 32nd round of the English top flight as Pep Guardiola’s side battled Liverpool and Arsenal in an extremely tight race for the title. Early on Saturday afternoon, Manchester were the guests of 14th-placed Crystal Palace, but the match did not start as planned.
In the third minute, Jean-Philippe Mateta received the pass exactly inside the five, found himself face to face with the goalkeeper and calmly and flatly shot from the left side of the goal. However, the home team’s advantage did not last long, barely 10 minutes had passed, Kevin De Bruyne’s shot from the penalty area hit the upper right corner indefensible.
In the rest of the game, both sides had serious scoring opportunities, goalkeeper Henderson first poked out Haaland’s defense from the bottom left corner, then Jordan Ayew’s shot hit the post in front of the other goal, but no goal was scored, the sides ended in a draw.
At the beginning of the second half, City scored right away, Rico Lewis took the ball about 10 meters from the goal, shot immediately, his attempt bounced off one of the defenders, so it went defenseless into Henderson’s goal.
What’s more, in the first minutes of the last half hour of regular time, Haaland scored his first goal of the match from a pass from De Bruyne, who was still scoring, and then the Belgian midfielder scored again, so in the 70th minute, Pep Guardiola’s team had a three-goal advantage. In the remaining minutes, Crystal Palace improved on the result, Edouard was among the scorers, but the home team did not run for more than that.
Despite an early deficit, Manchester City won confidently in the end – and can prepare for the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 clash with Real Madrid.
According to the current situation, Manchester City has moved up to second place in the table with 70 points, but Liverpool, who have the same number of points, has not yet played in the round.
In the other matches of the game day, Bournemouth, which employs Kerkez Milos, was the guest of the newcomer Luton Town, and then in the early evening, Arsenal, fighting for the championship title, played as a guest of Brighton in need of victory.
Premier League, round 32
Saturday
- Crystal Palace–Manchester City 2–4
- Aston Villa–Brentford 3–3
- Everton–Burnley 1–0
- Fulham–Newcastle United 0–1
- Luton Town–Bournemouth 2–1
- Wolverhampton Wanderers–West Ham United 1–2
- Brighton–Arsenal 0–3
Sunday
- Manchester United–Liverpool 16.30
- Sheffield United–Chelsea 18.30
- Tottenham Hotspur–Nottingham Forest 19.00
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