Haaland’s late penalty breaks Fulham hearts
MANCHESTER CITY 2 Alvarez (17), Haaland (90+5) pen FULHAM 1
Pereira (28) pen
Pep Guardiola claimed Manchester City’s dramatic late victory against Fulham was “the moment” of his time at the club to date.
Erling Haaland drilled home a penalty deep into injury time as 10-man City saw off the battling Cottagers in a hard-fought Premier League clash at the Etihad Stadium.
The goal sparked jubilant celebrations around the ground, underlining the relief felt after the champions had played for more than an hour with a numerical disadvantage after Joao Cancelo was sent off.
The win took City back to the top of the table and, despite Guardiola having accumulated numerous trophies in his six full seasons at the club, he felt the character shown on this occasion surpassed everything.
Guardiola said: “Everyone was exceptional for 65 minutes against Fulham, playing the way we played.
“It was the moment of my period here in Manchester so far and, of course, the goal at the end, celebrating with our people – we didn’t win the Premier League here today, of course, but this moment makes sense of our job for all us.
“It was so exciting. After seven years, you always have doubts – do people follow you, are they tired, are people annoyed in their jobs, many thousands of millions of meetings, training session and travel, but today you say, wow, you see they are there.
“They still want to do it, they are still alive and they make us so, so proud. We won because my players are beyond exceptional in all departments.”
City had looked comfortable early on and went ahead through Julian Alvarez, but the game changed after Cancelo bundled over
Harry Wilson to concede a penalty and see red.
Andreas Pereira struck the resulting penalty and it required fit-again Haaland to come off the bench to snatch the win after the visitors proved a handful.
Guardiola had no complaints about the sending off. He said: “He was the last man. It was soft contact but there cannot be contact. It is a red card.”
The hosts started strongly and Bernardo Silva brought a good early save out of Bernd Leno, before De Bruyne tested the Fulham keeper with a fierce drive. The opener came after 17 minutes. Ilkay Gundogan threaded through a fine ball for Alvarez and the Argentinian, starting his third match in a week rattled in a shot off the bar.
John Stones thought he had added a second soon after when he pounced on a rebound from a set-piece but the flag was raised.
City relinquished their grip in a fractious 20-minute spell before the break.
Cancelo was the first to lose his composure as he saw red and conceded a penalty for clumsy challenge on Wilson.
Former Liverpool youngster Wilson was through on goal and shaping to shoot when Cancelo barged him off the ball making no attempt to play at it himself.
Referee Darren England had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and giving the Portuguese his marching orders.
Guardiola was enraged on the touchline and his mood was hardly improved as, first, Pereira made no mistake to level the scores.
Then, even though City did threaten again as Jack Grealish twice went close and Manuel Akanji headed at Leno, the hosts were on the end of some crude challenges.
Harrison Reed was booked for a bad foul on De Bruyne and Wilson then brought down Silva, although this time the City man was shown a yellow card for his reaction.
City lacked their usual bite after play resumed and they could have been punished just after the hour, but Wilson slashed a shot wide.
Guardiola immediately turned to Haaland and Phil Foden and the Norwegian seemed to have made the breakthrough as he headed home from a De Bruyne cros,s but he was ruled offside by VAR.
City applied further pressure but were unable to test Leno until, in injury time, Antonee Robinson clipped De Bruyne in the area. Haaland thumped home from the spot.
Fulham boss Marco Silva felt his side deserved better.
He said: “It is tough to take. The mood is not the best in the dressing room. We came here to embrace the great challenge that we had ahead of us and we did it most of the time.
“They started better than us and the first goal we conceded was clear , but I think we started in that moment.
“After we equalised and with the red card the game was more balanced. We showed some moments of quality, but I would like us to show more.”