London (AFP)
Phil Foden gave his team, Manchester City, the “defending champion,” a very important victory, in a sensitive period of the season, after he scored two goals that turned the tables, over the arch-neighbor, Manchester United, who advanced over its host, before losing in the end 1-3, in the 27th stage. From the English Football League.
Before defeating leaders Liverpool next Sunday, and then facing Newcastle in the cup quarter-finals, and third-placed Arsenal in the thirtieth round of the league, winning the “derby” was important for “City” in its journey, in order to try to win the treble for the second season in a row.
With the sixth victory in the last seven confrontations with United, City, which also plays on Wednesday, the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 against its Danish guest Copenhagen (they won the first leg 3-1), maintained the point difference that separates it from Liverpool, which won Saturday over Nottingham 1-0, ahead by a margin of Four points ahead of Arsenal, third, who concludes the stage on Monday, hosting Sheffield United.
On the other hand, United's balance froze at 44 points in sixth place, 11 points behind Aston Villa, the last fourth-place holder who qualifies for the Champions League next season and the winner over Luton Town 3-2.
City put pressure from the beginning, pushed by its noisy fans, but Marcus Rashford surprised the hosts with a rocket ball he fired in the 8th minute from outside the area into the roof of the net, after a quick counterattack started by Cameroonian goalkeeper Andre Onana, so he delivered the ball to Portuguese Bruno Fernandes, who prepared it for Rashford for his goal. Fifth in the Manchester derby: “Only Wayne Rooney and Frenchman Eric Contona surpass him in the number of derby goals in the league in United colors, with 8 for first and 7 for second, according to Opta statistics.”
This is the twelfth time this season that City finds itself lagging in the Premier League, one match short of its longest series of this kind under Guardiola’s leadership, which was achieved in the 2019-2020 season, that is, the last time it failed to win the title, according to Opta.
Foden was close to equalizing with a shot from a difficult angle, but Onana was on the lookout (15), then Rashford had a golden opportunity to score the second goal from another counterattack and after an error by City’s defense in applying the offside trap, but he failed to control the ball properly. The appropriate “16”.
Once again, Onana intervened to save his team in front of Foden, who was alone with him, after he broke the offside trap without succeeding in getting the ball into the net (19).
Despite other attempts from Spaniard Rodri, Belgian Jeremy Doku and Foden as well, City were unable to reach Onana's net even when the net was open in front of Norwegian Erling Haaland, who knocked the ball over the crossbar in a strange manner, leaving Rashford's goal remaining the deciding factor between the two teams at the end of the first half.
City began the second half where it ended the first, pressing, searching for the equalizer, which was finally achieved thanks to Foden and a wonderful goal from an arc shot he fired from outside the “56” area.
After that, the goalkeepers lost chances until the 78th minute, when United demanded a penalty kick after an intervention by Brazilian goalkeeper Ederson on Argentine Alejandro Garnacho, but the referee took the green light from the VAR to continue playing.
Then the danger moved to the other side and Foden struck again by scoring the lead goal in the 80th minute with a shot from a difficult angle, following a team game, and a pass from Argentine substitute Julián Alvarez, who entered in the 59th minute instead of Doku.
Thus, Foden raised his tally to 17 goals in all competitions this season, providing his best goalscoring performance in a single season.
Haaland refused to leave his touch in the match by scoring the third goal in the first minute of stoppage time, following a grave error by the Moroccan “substitute” defender Sofiane Emrabat, who lost the ball to Rodri, so the latter passed it to the Norwegian to score his eighteenth goal in the league this season and the twenty-eighth. He has played 31 matches in all competitions, including five on Tuesday against Luton Town 6-2 in the Cup final.
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