London (dpa)
Manchester City continued its good start in the defense of the English Premier League title this season, and achieved a valuable and deserved victory 4/1 at its host Brighton today, Saturday, in the ninth stage of the competition.
Manchester City raised its score to 20 points to advance to second place, only two points behind leaders Chelsea, and two points ahead of Liverpool, who meet Manchester United tomorrow, Sunday, in another match at the same stage. Brighton’s balance froze at 15 points, but remained in fourth place temporarily, with a goal difference only against Tottenham, knowing that he suffered his second defeat today in nine matches he played in the competition, and the defeat came today after three consecutive draws for the team in the competition.
Manchester City finished the match completely in the first half with three clean goals, scored by Elki Gundogan in the 13th minute and Phil Foden in the 28th and 31st minutes, while substitute Alexis McAllister scored a goal to save Brighton face in the 81st minute, before substitute Riyad Mahrez scored Manchester City’s fourth goal in the minute. Fifth of overtime for the game.
Despite Brighton’s attempts to show some rivalry in front of their guest in the first minutes, Manchester City was the best and most dangerous and had more than one dangerous opportunity at the beginning of the meeting. Joao Cancelo hit a powerful ball crawling from the edge of the penalty area in the seventh minute, which was blocked by the Brighton goalkeeper.
In the 11th minute, there was a golden opportunity for the visitors, but defender Louis Dink pushed the ball over the goal line after a great shot from Gabriel Jesus. Manchester City’s attempts led to the lead in the 13th minute, signed by German Ilkay Gundogan.
The goal came after an organized attack by Manchester United and a shot from Phil Foden, but the ball hit one of the players and went up into the penalty area.
Brighton players protested that Gundogan was offside, but the video assistant referee (VAR) proved that he was not offside. The rhythm of play by Manchester City calmed down after the goal, which gave Brighton the opportunity to make some offensive attempts, which would not result in anything, while the most dangerous opportunity was for Manchester City, after Phil Foden was alone in the 18th minute, who was saved by the goalkeeper.
Despite this, Foden scored the second goal for Manchester City in the 28th minute to send a strong shock to Brighton’s ambitions. The goal came after Brighton’s attack in front of the Manchester City penalty area, the ball was cut from it and passed to Bernardo Silva, who is rushing in the middle of the field to advance and then passes it in front of Jack Grealish, who advanced the ball to the penalty area, then passed it to his colleague Foden, who is also rushing on the border of the area , to be paid by Foden from the center of the area directly into the ceiling of the window.
The flood of Manchester did not calm down at this point, but the team scored its third goal in the 31st minute with the signature of Foden.
The goal came after a quick attack by Manchester, through which Jesus passed the ball to his colleague Grealish, who rushed into the area. He shot it towards the goalkeeper who responded to it, but the ball rebounded to Jesus, who shot it from the center of the penalty area to touch his colleague Foden and hit the goalkeeper’s hand and completed its way into the goal.
Brighton’s attempts to respond at the end of the first half failed, and the half ended with Manchester City leading by three goals. The pace of play by Manchester City calmed down in the second half, giving Brighton the opportunity to make some offensive attempts in the hope of reducing the result.
Despite this, the performance was an argument between the two teams in this half without posing a real danger to the two goals. And Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson caused a penalty kick against his team in the 80th minute, by interfering with substitute Enoch Mwebo to drop him inside the penalty area after a quick attack by Brighton.
Manchester players objected to the goal, claiming that one of Brighton’s players had infiltrated at the beginning of the attack, but the referee indicated that the penalty kick was awarded. And the other substitute, Alexis McAllister, scored the penalty kick, scoring a face-saving goal for Brighton in the 81st minute.
The following minutes witnessed several attempts by the two teams, after the substitutions made by the two coaches in the second half sparked a clear activity in the performance. While the match seemed to end with this result, Algerian substitute Riyad Mahrez scored the fourth goal for Manchester City, after a quick attack by the team in the fifth minute of stoppage time, during which the Brighton defense failed to remove the ball after a cross pass from the right side, Foden passed it to Mahrez, who He shot it into the homeowners’ net seconds before the whistle at the end of the match.
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