Erling Haaland scored twice on Tuesday to settle Manchester City’s nerves as the English Premier League champions beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 to take a giant step toward a historic fourth straight English title.
The Norwegian forward tapped home a pinpoint Kevin de Bruyne cross early in the second half to score City’s first-ever league goal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. He also netted a late penalty to seal the three points for the visitors, minutes after substitute goalkeeper Stefan Ortega saved brilliantly from Son Heung-min.
The win takes City two points clear of Arsenal at the top of the table after 37 games.
Photo: AFP
Victory at the Etihad against West Ham United on Sunday would make them champions for a fourth consecutive season, regardless of the Gunners’ result against Everton.
No team in English top-flight history has ever won four titles in a row.
The Spurs’ defeat also guarantees that Aston Villa will finish in the fourth UEFA Champions League spot, joining City, Arsenal and Liverpool in Europe’s top-tier competition next season.
“The tennis players say: ‘The serve to win Wimbledon, the last game, is the most difficult one,’” City manager Pep Guardiola told the BBC. “It happened in our period against Aston Villa [in 2022]. And many, many years ago it happened with Sergio Aguero [scoring] in 93 minutes, 20 seconds against QPR [the Queens Park Rangers]. So there will be the typical game.”
Guardiola called for help from City’s fans to get them over the line.
“We know what we’re playing for,” he said. “The tension is there, the rival is so good. It’s why it is difficult, we know that. Everyone come to the stadium and make noise. These games are more difficult, but you have to do it. We’ll have one day off, two days to prepare, and then we will do our best.”
The build-up to the game in north London was dominated by a fierce debate over whether home fans wanted their own team to lose to leave City in the driving seat, with Arsenal their nearest challengers.
The Spurs supporters made their feelings toward their bitter local rivals clear in the opening minutes, with chants of “Stand up if you hate Arsenal” ringing around the stadium.
Tottenham had the first sight of goal, with City’s Ederson tipping over a fierce Rodrigo Bentancur effort before Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario kept out Phil Foden’s close-range shot.
City, who came into the match unbeaten in 21 league matches, were short of their fluent best while Spurs struggled to put the finishing touches on their attacking moves.
Moments after the restart, Vicario dove full length to keep out a stinging De Bruyne effort, but the visitors broke the deadlock in the 51st minute when Bernardo Silva found De Bruyne in the box and the Belgian crossed for Haaland to slot home from point-blank range.
Thousands of Spurs fans chanted: “Are you watching Arsenal,” as the City faithful celebrated in their corner.
The game then became disjointed as De Bruyne was raked down the Achilles by Pape Sarr before Ederson took a blow to the head in denying Cristian Romero and was replaced shortly after that by Ortega.
The German was called into action immediately, denying substitute Dejan Kulusevski from close range.
Time stood still when Son burst through with five minutes of normal time remaining, but Ortega saved with his legs when the South Korean seemed certain to score.
Guardiola fell to the ground, clutching his head in disbelief.
Instead City were awarded a penalty when Pedro Porro brought down substitute Jeremy Doku and Haaland smashed home in the 91st minute to spark wild celebrations from the players in front of the City faithful, taking his league tally to 27 goals for the season.
Manchester City have reached do-or-die territory in the UEFA Champions League earlier than expected ahead of what Pep Guardiola has described as a “final” against Club Brugge today. City have disproved the suggestion a new format to Europe’s top club competition would remove any jeopardy for the top clubs as Guardiola stares down the barrel of failing to make the Champions League knockout stages for the first time in his career. The English champions have endured a torrid season both in their English Premier League title defense and on the continent. A run of one win in 13 games, which included Champions League
BACK-TO-BACK: The League One club, which is owned by stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, is sparing no expense to clinch promotion to the Championship Hollywood endings are pricey, even in England’s third division. In pursuit of their third straight promotion, Wrexham AFC splashed some cash at League One rival Reading to secure the services of striker Sam Smith. The Welsh club owned by actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney confirmed the signing of the 26-year-old Smith on Friday. He is one of the top scorers in the third division. The transfer fee was not disclosed, but British media widely reported it to be about ￡2 million (US$2.48 million) — not extravagant, but a hefty price at this level and it would be about the same figure that
Less than a week after splashing out a world-record fee for Naomi Girma, Chelsea has spent big again to bring England midfielder Keira Walsh back to the English Women’s Super League. Walsh left European champions Barcelona after more than two years to join Chelsea for a reported ￡400,000 (US$496,000) on Friday. Walsh was the world’s most expensive player for two years after moving to Barcelona from Manchester City for a reported ￡400,000 in 2022. That status now belongs to Girma, the US defender who cost Chelsea a reported ￡900,000 to sign from the San Diego Wave. Still, it means 27-year-old Walsh — a technically
Ousmane Dembele on Wednesday scored a hat-trick as Paris Saint-Germain romped to a 4-1 win at VfB Stuttgart and qualified for the UEFA Champions League knockout stages. PSG were at risk of elimination after a disappointing league stage, with three losses and a draw, but were utterly dominant against an outclassed Stuttgart side as they confirmed their place in the playoffs. With six minutes gone, Bradley Barcola headed PSG in front after Desire Doue stood a cross up at the back post following a corner. Stuttgart probed for an equalizer, but PSG hit on the counterattack, Dembele tapping a Barcola pass into an
RSS