2023-04-30 15:24:00
In theory, the meeting with Fulham was supposed to be a formality for Manchester City, as the West London side have lost five of their last seven Premier League meetings. It started off perfectly for The Citizens but Fulham woke up pretty quickly and struggled to take points in the second half.
Historic Haaland, Glamorous City
The first goal for Manchester City came in the third minute of the game from the penalty spot, which was dictated by Tim Ream’s foul on one of the visiting players. Erling Haaland scored very confidently from eleven meters. It was his 34th league goal of the season and in the process equaled the scores of Andy Cole and Alan Shearer in the 1990s.
The champions of England were playing the ball, it seemed that they would increasingly mark their advantage. But they ran into a Fulham counterattack in the 15th minute, which was finished off in cold blood by Carlos Vinicius. Unexpectedly, the hosts caught the wind in their sails and felt that they might actually compete with Manchester City for something more.
The match was full of physical clashes on the verge of a foul, but the referee Simon Hooper gave a lot of freedom in the game and fighting for the ball. The Citizens needed a flash of genius from one of their players to take the lead once more. The blockbuster action was not carried out by Haaland, neither did Riyad Mahrez and Ilkay Gundogan. Julian Alvarez managed to do it, who in the 36th minute cleverly deceived as many as four rivals, escaped from the pressure, found a place to shoot from outside the penalty area and aimed at the very window of Fulham’s goal. The score was 2-1 to the visitors at the break.
Fulham stood up
In the second part of the meeting, the hosts started to play faster, more aggressively, they were close to creating a really good scoring opportunity. In the 68th minute, they called for a penalty following Bobby Reid went down following a clash with one of the defenders, but the referee did not point to “lime”. Despite their desire to play offensively, Fulham had to keep in mind the constant threat from Haaland and Alvarez. But the hosts managed to hold off this duo until the end of the meeting.
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Manchester City did not play as confidently as before the break. He was surprised by the higher intensity of the hosts, but he survived the onslaught in the most difficult moments. At the end of the match, the visitors played for time and it paid off. We managed to keep the positive result from the first half and eventually won 2:1.
With this victory, “The Citizens” overtook Arsenal and became the new leaders of the Premier League. They are a point ahead of the Gunners who will answer Manchester City on Tuesday once morest Chelsea. City have one less game played than the Londoners.
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