Manchester City suffered a surprising defeat in the Premier League on Saturday. Pep Guardiola’s team lost 1-2 against Leeds United, which had a complete half with ten men on the field, and that means the first league defeat at home against a PhD student since the 0-2 loss against Reading in February 2007. Guardiola was already thinking about seeing Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League again, as he had changed his team in seven places from the 2-1 victory over the Germans.
The devil in the first half was in the last minutes. The first forty minutes had gone relatively smoothly, until Leeds United unbalanced the game. After preparatory work by Hélder Costa on the left and a pass from Patrick Bamford, Stuart Dallas shot the ball hard and low through the left post behind Ederson: 0-1. However, the visitors, where Pascal Struijk started on the bench, did not end the first half as they had hoped.
?? Manchester City play with one more man in the second half! ??
Posted by football zone on Saturday April 10, 2021
Two minutes later, Gabriel Jesus was the victim of a gross tackle from Cooper, after which Andre Marriner pulled a yellow card. However, the VAR intervened and the referee on duty revisited the footage of the moment. Marriner reversed his decision and sent Cooper off the field with a red card. Bielsa immediately intervened and exchanged Bamford for Struijk before the halftime signal.
Despite the meanwhile, Leeds United played a good second half; the visitors defended with gusto, forcing Manchester City to try with long range shots. After less than an hour of play, Guardiola was forced to take Nathan Aké, who made his first minutes since December 26 last year, to the side in favor of Ilkay Gündogan. The pressure on Illan Meslier’s goal area increased noticeably. A shot from Gundogan went over and the final post had to come into action on attempts by Fernandinho and Joao Cancelo.
Manchester City cleared the gap fifteen minutes before the end. Bernardo Silva delivered a pass from Fernandinho to Ferran Torres, who worked the leather behind Meslier in one go: 1-1. The Guardiola’s team was unable to do more and it was even Leeds that was dangerous in the final minutes. Ederson was able to prevent Raphinha from taking the winning goal with an excellent tackle, but then Leeds United’s second shot at goal also immediately meant the 1-2. After a wonderful pass from Ezgan Alioski, Dallas ran between John Stones and Fernandinho towards the goal area, after which he passed Ederson with a low bet.
Manchester City managed to win no fewer than 27 of the previous 28 matches. The winning streak was only interrupted by Manchester United, which won the derby 0-2 at the beginning of March. The zeperd does not hurt Manchester City very much, as the lead over first pursuer Manchester United is still fourteen points. The fellow townsman still has two games credit.