150 up for Sergio Aguero reaches goals milestone
Guardiola’s City slickers shocked by late leveller 1 1 Agüero 43 De Roon 90 Att: 54,294 If there was a drawback to the sheer scale of Manchester City’s endeavours in midweek against Barcelona, it was the risk of a hangover in their next Premier League assignment and so it proved here against Middlesbrough.
Good in the first half, not so much in the second, City’s intensity levels dropped after the interval, Aitor Karanka’s team raised their own game, and the combined effect was a stoppagetime equaliser from Marten de Roon.
City have now drawn their past three Premier League home games 1-1, dropping six points in the process and opening the door to their title rivals. Like the games against Everton and Southampton, City created more than enough chances to win but they were not clinical enough in front of goal.
Still, this was a very good point for Middlesbrough, whose attitude and application in the second period was in stark contrast to their cowed approach in the opening half when Sergio Agüero’s 150th goal for City, and 14th in 15 matches this season, put them ahead.
How damaging this result proves in the final reckoning remains to be seen but Pep Guardiola refused to be too hard on his players. “The second half we didn’t play like the first one but I think they had one chance at the beginning of the second half and the last minute. Everton and Southampton as well,” the City manager said. “When you see all three games, we dropped six points but they arrived maybe four or five times in our box.
“We created more than enough chances to win the game, we attacked really well, but when you arrive in the last minutes, at just 1-0, anything can happen. You can talk about the performance after a demanding game last Tuesday and maybe in the last minutes the team can be tired. But if we score the second goal, the chance for Sergio or Kevin De Bruyne, the game was over. We need to improve in both boxes.”
Agüero, for his part, admitted he should have done better with that aforementioned chance, when he launched the ball over the crossbar from Jesus Navas’s pull-back. “The ball was under my feet and I only had a few seconds to decide,” Agüero said. “I had many chances. I need to improve.”
Guardiola will appreciate Agüero shouldering such responsibility but the reality is City should have done better for Middlesbrough’s goal. Yes, George Friend’s cross was excellent, but Adama Traoré should have been shackled and not allowed to get the ball out wide to his captain and Gaël Clichy got his positioning wrong as De Roon stole in to head Friend’s ball past Claudio Bravo. For all their wastefulness, if anything is going to hinder City’s title prospects it is those defensive lapses, but Guardiola does not seem too concerned.
“Do you think it is a problem when the opponent arrives two times in the box and we arrive 10 times?” he said.
City had put so much into that 3-1 win over Barcelona and it showed in the final half-hour, in particular, as they Late show: Middlesbrough’s Marten de Roon celebrates his equaliser in stoppage time faded just when Middlesbrough got stronger. Agüero aside, De Bruyne also had an opportunity to double City’s lead before Middlesbrough scored but steered a shot wide with the goal gaping after the otherwise impressive Víctor Valdés had raced off his line and flapped at a high ball. But the result had not seemed likely on the balance of play in the first 45 minutes.
If you have not already, make time this weekend to watch the sheer splendour of the cross from De Bruyne that allowed Agüero to score shortly before half-time. His low, whipped, in-swinging ball – “amazing” according to Guardiola – eluded four Middlesbrough players before popping up for Agüero to stab home. “Big congratulations to Sergio for reaching 150 goals,” Guardiola said. “I only scored 11 in my entire career!” It was no less than City Sergio Agüero scored his 150th goal for Manchester City yesterday – and he is closing in on the club record.
178 goals Eric Brook (played for City between 1928 and 1939)
166 goals Tommy Johnson (1920-30) 152 goals Joe Hayes (1953-65)
150 goals Sergio Agüero (2011-present)
148 goals Francis Lee (1967-74) They dominated that period. Middlesbrough were pinned in their own third, although it was hard to understand what Karanka’s side were hoping to achieve and their vast improvement after the interval only begged the question of why they had not been more adventurous from the start. “In the first half we just tried to defend and when you do that against the big teams, you concede a goal,” Karanka said. “At half-time, I told them we had to play with more intensity.”
But for Valdés, Middlesbrough would have been down by more than one. The former Barcelona and Manchester United goalkeeper made an excellent save to deny David Silva from Navas’s pull-back. Navas also hit a post and not even a gash to Valdés’s right thigh, sustained when Navas accidentally caught him with his studs, could inhibit him.
Middlesbrough were unrecognisable in the second half as City tired. They defended with a much higher line, pressed from the front when it allowed and sought to break on the counter-attack, with Traoré and Adam Forshaw offering more support to Álvaro Negredo. Negredo, the former City striker, almost lobbed Bravo from just inside the opposition half within moments of the restart and Bravo made a good save to deny Forshaw from Traoré’s pass, before Stewart Downing went close. Manchester City (4-1-4-1): Bravo 6; Zabaleta 6, Stones 7, Kolarov 6, Clichy 5; Fernandinho 7; Navas 7 (Garcia 86), De Bruyne 7, Gundogan 6 (Nolito 75), Silva 6; Aguero 7 (Iheanacho 90). Subs Caballero (g), Kompany, Sane, Maffeo. Aguero Booked Middlesbrough
(4-2-3-1): Valdes 7; Barragan 7, Chambers 7, Gibson 7, Friend 7; Clayton 7, De Roon 7; Traoré 7 (Stuani 90), Forshaw 6, Downing 6 (Fischer 78); Negredo 6. Subs Guzan (g), Da Silva, Espinosa, Leadbitter, Nugent. Booked Forshaw, De Roon, Clayton.
K Friend (Leicestershire). Referee