Manchester City's Norwegian top scorer, Erling Haaland, returned after missing his team's last two matches, scoring a 2-1 victory for his team in the last gasp against Fulham to give him three valuable points in his struggle with Arsenal for the title in the 15th stage of the English Football Championship, Saturday.
City rose to the top temporarily with 32 points, one point ahead of Arsenal, who are facing a difficult test, Sunday, against their neighbor Chelsea.
Haaland started the match on the bench of the reserve players, replacing him with the Argentine Julian Alvares, the brilliant continental player, in the last match for City, by scoring a goal and passing two decisive balls in the 3-1 victory over Seville, Spain, in the last sixth round of the Champions League.
Overall, the City coach made eight substitutions compared to the match against Sevilla.
After two unsuccessful attempts by Portuguese Bernardo Silva (3) and Belgian playmaker Kevin De Bruyne (9), Alvares opened the scoring after a forehand ball from German Ilkay Gundogan hit it from a narrow angle at the top of the net (17). Then the referee canceled a goal for defender John Stones for offside.
But things got complicated for City after his Portuguese international back Joao Cancelo was sent off after a joint ball with Fulham striker Harry Wilson, who scored a single goal, so that the referee awarded a penalty kick for the guests, which was successfully scored by Brazilian Andreas Pereira against his compatriot Ederson (26).
City completed the match with ten players and found it difficult to penetrate the defenses of Fulham, who returned this season to the ranks of the elite clubs, who was absent in this match, the Serbian top scorer Aleksandar Mitrovic, who scored 9 goals, due to injury.
Halland entered in the 64th minute instead of Alvares and managed to score a header after a perfect pass from De Bruyne, one of the match's stars, but the referee did not count it for offside (74).
In added time, De Bruyne penetrated the area, where he was obstructed by one of the Fulham defenders. The referee did not hesitate to award a penalty kick for Haaland to the right of the goalkeeper (90 + 5) to give his team a difficult and expensive victory.
Amazing numbers
Haaland raised his score to the top scorer to 18 goals this season. It is also Haaland's 23rd goal in 16 matches in various competitions since his move to City from Borussia Dortmund.
"I was a little nervous before taking the penalty, but in the end I managed to translate it into a goal," Haaland said.
He added, "Playing with 10 players against 11 over 70 minutes is not easy, the way we played with the lack of numbers, I don't think any team can do that."
"I've been away for a week and now I'm back and I'm happy to give my team three very important points," he concluded.
It is noteworthy that Halland will be one of the most prominent absentees from the World Cup finals in Qatar this month, due to the lack of qualification for his country.
0 Comments