On the evening of January 22, three goals from Erling Haaland helped the Etihad Stadium team overcome Wolves 3-0 in round 21 of the Premier League. Before the match once morest MU, Arsenal was only 2 points ahead of Man City.
After a series of 4 matches in a row, Haaland returned and broke more records. Wolves, the team struggling in the race to stay in the Premier League this season, might not stop the Norwegian striker. The “wolf pack” shows signs of revival under the new coach Julen Lopetegui, but Man City and Haaland are still too much of a challenge for them.
After a stalemate at the beginning of the match once morest a fierce defensive play from Wolves, Man City opened the scoring in the 40th minute when Haaland headed high and netted Jose Sa. Kevin De Bruyne continued to show his class when he had a cross with the correct trajectory, helping his teammates score.
Haaland’s goal changed the game. From here, Man City is easier to kick and make attacks quite coherent. In the 50th minute, the Wolves captain, Ruben Neves, fouled a Man City player in the penalty area, causing the home team to incur a penalty. On the 11-meter mark, Haaland easily fooled goalkeeper Jose Sa, raising the score to 2-0 for Man City.
| Haaland has four hat-tricks in just 19 Premier League appearances, a league record. Photo: Archyde.com. |
Man City’s high pressing system caused many difficulties for Wolves this match. It was from an early effort to pressure the homeowner that the “Wolves” defense made a mistake to help Haaland have the 3rd goal in the match. Just 4 minutes following Haaland scored from the penalty spot, Mahrez successfully pressed and cleared the field for his Norwegian teammate to cushion the ball into an empty net.
Haaland completed a hat-trick in the match, and set a 3-0 victory for the blue half of Manchester. With Haaland personally, he has scored 25 goals in 19 games in the Premier League this season, far ahead of the second place in the race for the Golden Shoe Harry Kane (13 goals).
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| Haaland shows the ability to take advantage of great opportunities in Man City’s system. Photo: Archyde.com. |
The impressive performance of the former Dortmund star helped Man City play leisurely for the rest of the match. Even when Pep replaced Haaland from the 61st minute, Man City still owned the game and did not let Wolves score an honorable goal.
Man City overcame Wolves with a score of 3-0 at Etihad Stadium. The defending champion of England has 45 points following 20 matches and is only 2 points behind Arsenal but has played 2 more matches than “Gunners”.
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| Expected goal index (xG) chart of the two teams. Man City have 2.95 xG while Wolves have 0.58. |
