Manchester City stretch lead at top despite late scare by Allardyce’s Leeds
“You’re getting sacked in the morning” rang in Sam Allardyce’s ears from Manchester City fans after Ilkay Gündogan’s second goal of a victory that moves Pep Guardiola’s champions three points closer to a hat-trick of titles.
It would be fair to characterise City’s display as a stroll, before what unfolded late on after Phil Foden earned a penalty. Despite Riyad Mahrez, a regular taker, and the 51-goal man Erling Haaland both being on the field, Gündogan stepped up in an attempt to complete a hat-trick.
The Germany international missed, smacking the spot-kick off Joel Robles’s left post. Then, after a furious Pep Guardiola could be lip-read informing Haaland: “You have to take it,” Leeds moved downfield and Rodrigo beat Ederson from inside the area.
This resulted in time-wasting by Haaland and Foden at a corner flag and a wave of black-and-gold shirts attacking but City survived and seem destined to be champions again, four points clear with four matches left. For Allardyce, the future is bleaker: Leeds’s new head coach now has only three games remaining to avoid the drop and on this evidence he may fail.
A contest that was broadcast live (moved from its original Sunday slot because of Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final first leg at Real Madrid) and which broke the domestic 3pm kick-off blackout was, until the close, no real spectacle. Gündogan and Kevin De Bruyne, who ran the contest, were two of the seven City changes from the side that beat West Ham and Wednesday. Allardyce made four alterations from the side Javi Garcia picked at Bournemouth, with Illan Meslier’s exclusion so that Robles could make his Premier League debut the headline one.
Sam Allardyce speaks to his Leeds players during a break in play. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Observer
It was the goalkeeper’s right knee that saved Leeds when Haaland moved on to a Rico Lewis defence-splitter and let fly but Robles could do nothing about Gündogan’s opener. De Bruyne was the initiator, feeding Mahrez along his right corridor. With a swish of feet Mahrez left Junior Firpo trailing and rolled the ball to Gündogan, who coolly finished to Robles’s left.
At this juncture Gündogan was in masterclass mode, seeming to pull a yard of turf about with him in which to operate, flicking passes with the outside of his exquisite right foot to whomever he fancied.
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One of these was a dipping effort to De Bruyne who, twisting in mid-air, dropped the ball where Haaland would have asked for it, but he blazed wide of Robles’s left post. The Norwegian was upset, yet City were soon delighted again as Güdongan scored a near carbon copy of the opener.
Once again Mahrez skipped inside on the right, saw Güdongan lurking and tapped the ball to him. This time the strike was across Robles who could only watch. But in added time, after the missed penalty, the match-winner was ignored by Guardiola when he was substituted.
Source: The Guardian
