Manchester City renverse Brentford et revient à portée de tir de Liverpool

CityCity is within striking distance of Liverpool once again. Trailing after just twenty minutes of play by a very dangerous Brentford team on the counter (goal by Frenchman Neal Maupay), Manchester City eventually turned the game around in the second half to win 3-1 on the Gtech Community Stadium pitch. Carried by an enormous Phil Foden (45th+2, 52nd and 69th) with a hat-trick, the Cityzens secured their fifteenth victory in the Premier League, bringing them to just two points behind leaders Liverpool (51 points).

Returning in full force for this classic trap match (Herling Haaland, Manu Akanji, and John Stones made their comeback in Pep Guardiola’s squad), Manchester City long believed they had fallen into a real trap in this match closing the 23rd matchday. Dominant and very dangerous early on through Alvarez (9th, 14th), the Sky Blues were nevertheless surprised shortly after the quarter-hour mark by an apparently innocuous clearance from Brentford goalkeeper Mark Flekken, which the cunning Neal Maupay (20th, 1-0) converted flawlessly along with his striking partner Ivan Toney.

Trapped by this Trafalgar move perfectly orchestrated by Thomas Frank’s men, City then rushed toward the opposition goal without, however, managing to get past a trance-like Mark Flekken. Thwarted seven times (9th, 13th, 14th, 22nd, 26th, 43rd, 44th) by the Dutch goalkeeper in just the first half, Pep Guardiola’s players nevertheless managed to crack the unbeatable Bees goalkeeper just before halftime on a defensive error by Ethan Pinnock, which was well exploited by the cheeky Phil Foden (45th+2, 1-1).

Tota lly revived by this very logical reduction in the score, Manchester City freed themselves after the break and just as logically strengthened their lead over a Brentford team now overwhelmed by the talent of the Sky Blues.

The man of the day for the sky blue ranks, the untouchable Phil Foden (52nd, 1-2) first secured a brace with a cross-header following a beautifully wrapped cross from Kevin De Bruyne. Then the English international (69th, 1-3) definitively pounded City’s lead nearly twenty minutes later, concluding a very nice collective movement initiated by the duo Rodri Hernandez-Herling Haaland.

With two secure goals and a brilliant duo of Phil Foden-Kevin De Bruyne, nothing could stop a Manchester City team not only impressively in control (72.1% ball possession) of the ball, but also incredibly accurate in their final move (15 shots on target out of 25 attempts on the opposition’s goal). The newly second-place team in the league with 49 points and a game in hand on league leaders Liverpool (51 points), City has all the cards in their hand to extend their reign in England for another season.