Haaland on the spot as Pep’s chasers keep racking up the points
ERLING HAALAND’S late penalty ensured Manchester City keep breathing down Arsenal’s necks as Pep Guardiola’s men, temporarily at least, closed the gap at the top to two points.
It was by no means pretty from the visitors but at this stage of the season and with the title on the line they simply won’t care how they rack up the points as long as they do.
Haaland had seen little of the ball in the 77 minutes which preceded his goal and, when he had got on it, he hadn’t been hugely effective.
But big players step up when it really matters and he slotted the ball home past Palace keeper Vicente Guaita, who really didn’t deserve to be on the losing side.
City should have gone in at the break at least one goal to the good after Nathan Ake put on a plate for Haaland.
The striker, however, was leaning back and he failed even to test Guaita in the Palace goal, blazing well over.
In fact, the only time Guaita had been tested in that entire first period was just two minutes into the game when Rodri caught a volley sweetly from the edge of the area.
The Spaniard matched a lovely effort with an equally good save.
Credit to the home side for keeping compact defensively and putting the brakes on
City almost every time they advanced, with Marc Guehi in particular giving Haaland little room to manoeuvre.
They did a proper job in cutting the supply line to Jack Grealish on the left and, while Phil Foden saw more of the ball out on the right, too often the final pass wasn’t clinical
Crystal Palace .................... 0 Man City ............................ 1 Tom Hopkinson reporting from
enough and Palace stopped it dead.
Not that Palace’s front men saw much of the ball, either, and Rodri was the primary reason for that.
He really is an immense defensive midfielder.
Rodri was involved as City won a free-kick in the Palace D and so, too, was Guaita.
The City players on the end of the Palace wall split for Foden to drill a fierce effort on target but Guaita was again equal to the strike.
It would be Foden’s last contribution, with striker Julian Alvarez sent on to replace him.
Guaita was having such a good game that perhaps the only way City were going to find a way past him was if it was from the penalty spot.
And so it proved as Michael Olise suffered a rush of blood to the head.
Grealish played a short corner to Ilkay Gundogan and Olise sprinted to close him down.
A little loss of balance at the wrong moment proved costly, though, and there was no doubt for referee Robert Jones or anyone else in the stadium that it was a spot-kick.
Haaland picked the ball up and finally beat Guaita, sending him the wrong way with a cool finish that delighted his manager and team-mates.
C PALACE: Guaita 8; Clyne 7 (Ward 70, 6), Andersen 7, Guehi 7, Mitchell 7; Lokonga 7, Milivojevic 7 (Ahamada 60, 6); Schlupp 7 (Eze 79, 6), Olise 5, Zaha 5; Ayew 5 (79, 6). MAN CITY: Ederson 6; Akanji 7, Dias 7, Ake 7, Stones 7; Foden 6 (Alvarez 57, 6), Rodri 8, Gundogan 7, Grealish 7, Silva 6 (De Bruyne 78, 6); Haaland 7.
MAN OF THE MATCH: RODRI – Controlled the midfield and controlled the game, just pipping Guaita.
REF: A Marriner