Tag: soccer

Erling Haaland Fires Four Past Wolves in Six Goal Thriller

The Premier League top scorer has regained his spot once again at the top of the golden boot race with a first half hattrick against Wolves that has silenced fans saying that he is a shadow of his 22/23 performance.

With his 5 goals on Saturday, Haaland has now registered 25 goals in the Premier League and 36 goals across all competitions in 41 appearances. It has come to the back end of the season where he has really come to life after scoring his sixth hattrick for the treble winners in just two seasons at the club.

Two of Haalands goals against Wolves came from the Penalty spot with a soft one given in the 12th minute and then a blatant foul onto Jeremy Doku in added time on the first half. It took him 54 minutes of the game to score 4 goals and, as Guardiola does, he inevitably subbed him off and sent him to rest which fans are speculated caused his frustration on the subs bench.

After the game concluded, Manchester United legend, Roy Keane, had a lot to say about Haalands outburst on the bench saying he was ”behaving like a spoiled brat”.

This comes only weeks after calling Haaland a ‘‘League Two player without his goals”. It has been highly critised that he can have this statement on the post match after just scoring 4 goals and giving his team the push that they need in the title race.

He did then say in the post match interview with viaplay that he ”does not care specifically about that man” referring to Roy Keane, possibly igniting Roy Keanes comments in the punditry box at full time.

Manchester City’s next game in this neck and neck title race is against Fulham on the 11th of May on the early 12:30 kick off where they will hope to regain their lead that they have in the Premier League over Arsenal and set up for their toughest game in this back end of the season against Spurs on the 14th of May, only three days later.

Returning Haaland Keeps Man City In Control of the Title Race

After Liverpool dropping points yet again, it is down to Manchester City and Arsenal to battle the title between the two of them rather than the three that was expected.

Manchester City faced off against a punished Nottingham Forest after a 4 point deduction in late March.

City lined up without Phil Foden who was out with an apparent illness so he stayed in Manchester whilst the team travelled. With the missing Foden, came some good news with the return of Erling Haaland who was out of the squad for two games due to fatigue/ muscle injuries.

Despite not starting for this game, Erling Haaland did come on in the 62nd minute whilst the Champions were already 1-0 up. He came on and almost instantly made it 2-0 with a goal in the 71st minute pretty much putting an end to the battle that Forest were putting up.

Haalands goal puts him back on the top of the golden boot race that has been very contended this year compared to the last that the Norwegian dominated. He goes up to 21 goals whilst Cole Palmer is just one behind with Ollie Watkins and Alexander Isak are sitting on 19 goals.

Just like the title race, the golden boot race is up for debate and will go down to the final day.

This game was also a landmark moment for City with Pep Guardiola taking control of 300 Premier League games with a staggering 221 wins. Despite his contract expiring, Guardiola is consistently extending his contract at the right timing for the following season.

If he does decide to extend and stay with Manchester City despite winning everything he possibly can, he could put his name in Premier League history as the most prolific winner of all time.

Manchester City will face off against Wolves on the 4th of May at the Etihad Stadium with the reverse game of this fixture going in the way of Wolves handing City one of their 3 losses all season long.

Foden Brace Keeps Man City in Driving Seat For Title Push

Phil Foden, who is having the best season of his career delivers once again for Manchester City in the run in to the end of the season where City normally perform their best.

After missing last weeks Premier League games due to the FA Cup ties, Manchester City travelled to Brighton to close the gap that Arsenal gained after winning both of their games. Manchester City are now in the final games of the season which, they took control of last season breaking a 13 point gap into a Premier League winning season.

Phil Foden has taken over the role of the centre of attention for this City side this year with injuries to Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne going in and out of injuries, but Foden was the one stable person within Manchester City this year. He has now become the main person to look towards a game changing moment this year.

City took the game comfortably 4-0 with a 3-0 first half making the home side realise that their chances for Europe next year is now near impossible with even winning out the rest of their games, they would still need the 5 teams above them to drop drastic points in their battle for Europe.

The day before the Manchester City game, Liverpool got shocked by Everton in a 2-0 loss putting their title chances even further in doubt now sitting 3 points off of Arsenal at the top of the table.

Arsenal are currently sat at the top of the table, however, the top position will be short-lived as City are one point behind them with a game in hand. Meaning even a draw for Manchester City could put enough pressure onto Arsenal in this title race.

Manchester City’s next game is against Nottingham Forsest on Sunday following the North London Derby between Tottenham and Arsenal where City fans will be having their best Spurs shirts on for the huge game in the title race.

A Fatigued City Squeeze Past Chelsea in FA Cup Semi-Final

Only 2 full days after being knocked out of the Champions League in added time, Manchester City travelled to London to try and defend their title in the FA Cup against Chelsea who have been rested since last weekend.

Despite the 120 minutes in the midweek, Guardiola only made 4 changes to the side with one of them being the goalkeeper, with Pep’s reasoning being that they did it years ago against Liverpool (made changes after midweek game) and they got destroyed 3-0 so he learnt not to do that and stuck with the team that he knew would win.

You could tell from the get-go that the Manchester City players that played over 90 minutes in the midweek were very fatigued and were not playing to the standard that was expected from their side especially Rodri, who made several sloppy plays which is unusual for the superstar midfielder. Kyle Walker is another player who only just coming back from injury has played 210 minutes of football in one week. It can be shown that the fact Champions League and FA Cup being played in one week is a major flaw of the formatting.

With Bernardo Silva to be one of the players to miss a penalty in the shootout in midweek, he made redemption for himself by scoring what proved to be the only goal of the game against Chelsea to send them into the FA Cup Final where they will look to defend their title once again.

This win also makes City’s first win against Chelsea this season with the London side being able to keep the Champions to a draw both at Stamford Bridge and the Etihad Stadium.

Bernardo Silva celebrated clutching the City badge on his shirt showing his loyalty and love towards the club that has brought him so much success and the club he has given his heart to since signing in 2017.

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Despite being by far the superior team in creating clear chances and counter-attacking off of City’s mistakes, Chelsea just were not clinical enough in front of the goal with their striker, Nicholas Jackson squandering a hat-trick of clear cut opportunities for Chelsea to take the lead in the tie against a fatigued Manchester City.

After the game concluded, Thiago Silva was seen on camera shedding tears for this loss at Wembley with the 39-year-old set to hold talks with the club over his contract and whether or not he will extend with the likely possibility being that this was his last chance at a trophy in his final year at the club.

Chelsea now put their efforts towards the Premier League where they can still fight for a spot in the Europa League against Tottenham, Manchester United and West Ham.

Manchester City turn their efforts onto the Premier League title race, with the FA Cup final not taking place until the 25th of May 2024.

Liverpool Go Tumbling Out Of Europa League To Atalanta

Liverpool, after chasing a treble of their own, are now down to just the Premier League to fight for as they go tumbling out of the Europa League in a 3-1 aggregate scoreline leaving Klopp’s final season as an underwhelming one.

Liverpool were heavy favourites coming into the tie as they were leading in the Premier League table ahead of Manchester City and Arsenal whilst Atalanta were sitting 7th place in the Serie A, leading fans to believe that this was just a brush over for Klopp’s men.

However, it didn’t go that way in a crumbling 3-0 defeat at Anfield left fans and the players scratching their heads on what happened in a game that seemed straight forward to win. Maybe it was the idea that they were better than them, and the confidence took over the fact that they are a fighting side that weren’t going to go down quietly.

In the most important part of the season, Liverpool have seemed to have hit a slump of form in their run in to the end of the title race which has effected their performances in the Europa League at the same time. A shocking 3-0 loss to Atalanta at home followed by a 1-0 loss to Crystal Palace put them in a position of doubt after looking comfortably in control and looking to take over the game.

The return fixture in Italy proved to be too hard for Klopp’s men to come back from and left them out of every competition bar the Premier League. A 3-0 deficit eventually broke them and they only managed 1 goal back from a Mo Salah penalty in the 7th minute which gave them hope, but that was the end of it.

After going out of the Europa League in astonishing fashion, Jurgen Klopp’s legacy at Liverpool will be ending in just 6 games with them all being in the Premier League in a title race that no one can seem to name as the leader at the moment.

With their heads turned to the Premier League, they look ahead to Sunday where they travel to Fulham to try and keep their title chances alive with Manchester City missing this weekends games due to their semi-final tie against Chelsea which will decide if Guardiola can end this year with a domestic double with Klopp already taking the crown of the EFL Cup.

Arsenal will face off against Wolves in the Premier League tomorrow with themselves coming off of a 1-0 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League and dropping points in the title race to Aston Villa last weekend.

The title race could be a three-way final day decider, one that has never been seen before in Premier League football where all three teams could reach the 90 point mark. Leading to the most competitive title race in years.

Mbappe Brace Sends PSG Into Semi-Finals of The Champions League

After losing their home tie 3-2 in France, PSG went to Barcelona to set the game in their favour and try and end their long wait for the Champions League trophy. The game was going in Barcelona’s favour until a huge issue in the 29th minute.

Their star defender, Araujo, took an awful challenge just outside of the 18-yard-box earning him a red card leaving a gap in Barcelona’s defence which just could not be filled as the game went on to be a 5 goal thriller to the side of PSG.

The game ended 4-1 in the favour of PSG and fans of Barcelona were to send hate and speculation on the referee’s decision to send off their centre back and their manager, Xavi who also received a red card during the game, in their post match interview, criticised the poor refereeing during this incredibly important tie.

Kylian Mbappe bagged 2 goals for his local club with a somewhat poor performance for his standards, however in the end his goals where the ones that took them into the semi-finals ahead of Barcelona.

The MOTM award went towards Dembele, who previously played for Barcelona but got a move to his home country and played his heart out for PSG against his former club, who ended up out of the competition.

With his performance, it left a sour taste in Barcelona fans mouth’s which has led to racist comments being left underneath his Instagram photos which can only lead to nothing good for Barcelona fans.

The negative racist comments that come from European football have been so high in recent times which it all being unwarranted for a player that just kicks a football to get racially abused, it is unacceptable.

PSG will go on to face Borussia Dortmund in the semi-finals of the Champions League whilst they await the games tonight to see who they will possibly play in the final of the competition where they are waiting for their first Champions League in its clubs history.

Title Race Goes Into The Hands of Manchester City

After a crazy weekend in the Premier League title race, Manchester City are gifted the top spot in the league after both Arsenal and Liverpool lost their games at home.

Manchester City kicked off the weekend with a 5-1 convincing victory over Luton leaving fans reassurance that they aren’t giving up on the title race with a wonderful team performance from City. Despite the 5-1 win they were still sitting 3rd in the league with fans still expecting to not reach the top spot this weekend.

However, it all went in City’s favour on the Sunday with Liverpool kicking off the day against Crystal Palace at Anfield in, what seemed like, a standard win for them. Despite that, Eze shocked Liverpool with a goal in the 14th minute which ended up being the only goal of the game and putting Liverpool’s title race in the balance with City now ahead of them in the league.

Although Liverpool dropped points, City were not to remain at the top if Arsenal were to win their game against Aston Villa who are sitting 4th in the league. City are coming off the back of a 4-1 victory over Villa which led to fans believing that they aren’t the team that got them into 4th spot anymore.

But something to keep in mind was that in the game against City, they were missing Watkins, McGinn, Martinez and Diaby who were all very influential in the game against Arsenal.

The game with Arsenal was very defensive until the the 85th minute where Leon Bailey put the ball in the back of the net to shock the home side with Ollie Watkins doubling the lead only 3 minutes later to send the Arsenal fans into a shock with a possible repeat of last years ‘bottle’ that saw them lose the league to City after being in the top spot for most of the year.

Ollie Watkins has now registered his 19th goal of the season, only 1 goal behind Erling Haaland, proving to fans that he is striker that is one of the most prolific goalscorers the league has seen this year and the past.

After the past weekend of games, City are now sat in the top spot with 73 points with Arsenal and Liverpool sat on 71 with all teams only 6 games to play left in the league where City have the easiest run-in of games of the three and Arsenal still are yet to face Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham which could see City lift the title yet again.

What to Expect From Man City vs Luton

With the title race coming down to the wire in its final 7 games in the Premier League, Manchester City face ‘must win’ games including welcoming Luton to the Etihad Stadium this weekend.

With the Etihad Stadium being something of a fortress over the last 2 years, any team to come and visit Manchester would come away with a draw in the BEST case scenario with teams such as Real Madrid, Liverpool, Arsenal all failing to get a win at the Etihad Stadium.

The upcoming game with Real Madrid could mean that Guardiola would rest players such as Phil Foden or Ruben Dias with the strength in depth of their bench, City can afford for Jeremy Doku and Rico Lewis to step into the side for their tie this weekend.

It is reported that De Bruyne’s illness earlier in the week came from food poisoning which he seems to be recovered mostly from and will be fit for next weeks reverse fixture of the champions league tie against Real Madrid and could star in this weekends tie against Luton Town.

Manchester City go into the game against Luton 1 point off the top spot in the Premier League with Arsenal and Liverpool sitting on 71 points. The run in for Arsenal is without a doubt the hardest of the three where they have to face off against Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United in games that could cause their title race could come crumbling down.

City also have to deal with the FA Cup, Champions League and Premier League in the space of 8 days with games against Real Madrid and Chelsea in the cup competitions possibly leaning towards resting certain players that wouldn’t need to play the full 90 minutes against Luton.

The team that could possibly be sent out this weekend, should be weaker than usual with Ederson maybe returning to the side and Rico Lewis, Mattheus Nunes and Jeremy Doku returning to their starting XI still possibly regaining their Premier League title.

The Two Titan Teams Forced To a 3-3 Draw at The Bernabeu

Two giants in global football faced off last night at the Bernabeu with the greatest club in the world against the best team in the world in this huge champions league clash.

The game is a repeat of the last three years of Champions League football with these two teams facing each other in the knockout stages with both teams having 1 win a piece, each year one of the two teams winning the competition.

This game had the skill and talent to become a final game however, it was a quarterfinal tie with one of these great teams being taken out of the competition so quickly in the tie next week with the aggregate score being 3-3.

With the run in into the game, people were fixated on the battle between the two hot English talents, Jude Bellingham vs Phil Foden. However, the Real Madrid youngster didn’t have much success compared to the Stockport lad. Phil Foden scored an insane goal from outside of the 18-yard box rocketing into the top left of the goal putting the game level at 2-2 60 minutes in.

The game started off crazy with a 2nd minute free-kick goal from Bernardo Silva which was answered back from Real Madrid with 2 goals in 2 minutes from the 13th-15th minute tie-ing up the game until the second half where Guardiolas side retaliated with 2 incredible goals from Foden and Gvardiol putting the game in their favour. However, it was short lived with Valverde having a sweet volley shot from the edge of the box rattling into the bottom corner of Ortegas goal.

Rodri’s incredible unbeaten run continues with 66 wins in all competitions after the 3-3 draw at the Bernabeu. The reverse fixture of this game should carry on this run with the Etihad being a fortress unbeaten for over a year which could lean towards a repeat of last years tie where it was all square in Madrid and once it kicked off in Manchester, City dominated 4-0 against Real Madrid.

Manchester City will still face Luton Town on the 13th of April at 15:00 with the run up to the reverse fixture in Manchester where they cannot afford to rest too many crucial players in the title race that has fans biting their nails to see if the treble can actually be retained for two years in a row.

Man City Injury Updates Ahead Of Real Madrid Tonight

Pep Guardiola’s treble winning Manchester City return to the Bernabeu to face Real Madrid who they beat 5-1 on aggregate last year, despite having a 1-1 draw in Madrid but dominating at the Etihad.

They come into this game with a different team as they are missing key parts of what kept Real Madrid at only 1 goal in the two legs. Real Madrid have also changed but they changed for the better with the addition of Jude Bellingham who has become a scoring machine in the La Liga this year.

City Injuries

Kyle Walker

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The City captain took a hit during his International duty for England where he went to the floor and was unable to play on during friendly games. Despite it only being a friendly, Gareth Southgate put out 33 year old Walker who has been crucial to Manchester City’s defence this year.

His involvement in last years tie against Real Madrid made sure that Vinicius Jr’s speed and dribbling was kept to a minimal 1 goal. Without Walker to face, Vinicius could see a few goals to his name during this tie which would cause some serious problems for City.

Rico Lewis has been playing in the right back role in Walkers absence. Despite how good the youngster is, Vinicius Jr could cause too many problems for the 19 year old.

Nathan Ake

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Nathan Ake joins Kyle Walker in being the only two first team players that haven’t travelled with the side to Madrid for the first leg of this huge tie. An injury that was picked up 2 weeks ago in the Arsenal vs Man City game which saw him off the pitch in the first half meant that Rico Lewis had to step into his position.

In a statement from the manager, Guardiola states that Ake and Walker aren’t close to coming back and wouldn’t be travelling with the squad to face Real Madrid.

In Ake’s absence, it has given the opportunity for Rico Lewis to start as the only natural full-back left on the City books that is un-injured and fit to play. All signs point to a Rico Lewis start for tonight’s game at the Bernabeu.

Josko Gvardiol

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In the 4-2 win over Crystal Palace on the weekend, Pep Guardiola made a surprise substitution at half time for Josko Gvardiol taking to the bench and Manuel Akanji coming into the starting XI for the final 45 minutes.

It was later confirmed that he felt uneasy and the boss decided that it was better to not risk it and brought him to the bench to try and preserve his body for future games. The game was tied 1-1 at half time and even without the Croatian, they managed to take the game 4-2 in the end.

Despite being not fully ready, he has travelled with the squad to Madrid but it is doubtful that he will be a starter for the game with the Manchester City defence being 3 men down that are all usual starters for Pep’s side this year.

Ederson

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Ederson, after taking a hit during the game against Liverpool nearly a month ago, is now fit for selection for the Real Madrid game tonight. However, despite him being back to fit and ready for selection.

”Ederson comes back from being injured and feels good, I think. So I have to decide if a lack of rhythm. But we’re really pleased from Stefan, an exceptional keeper”

Says Pep Guardiola in post press conference after 4-2 win over Crystal Palace.

Ortega has been exceptional in goal for the treble winners in Edersons absence and City fans are slowing realising that Ortega has the capability to become a starter for a world class team with his talents and composure.

It is expected that Manchester City will come into the game with a chip on their shoulder losing their captain and 3 of their starting 4 defenders, however, the Citizens are well known for their strength in depth with the talent that they have in their academy and they reverse rosters such as Rico Lewis, Manuel Akanji and John Stones returning from his injury just in time for the Real Madrid tie.