Sheff Utd 1 Man City 2
Sheff Utd welcomed Man City to Bramall Lane as the two sides were experiencing very different starts to the season, The Blades looking for their first win, while the defending champions had a 100% start to their campaign.
The visitors were without their manager as he recovers from back surgery, with this offering a test of how his side perform under the guidance of assistant manager Juanma Lillo, who had only returned to the club in the last month following a stint as Al Sadd manager.
Man City are never ones to start slowly and Kyle Walker found Erling Haaland in the box and as he tried to swivel and get a shot away, the blocked effort dropped straight into the path of Julian Alvarez. Foderingham came quickly off his line to smother the effort at the expense of a corner.
With Bernardo Silva back to full fitness, Man City were looking in good form, knocking the ball around with one-touch passing seemingly opening up the hosts at will. Sheff Utd were struggling to contain them even without Pep Guardiola on the touchline.
Credit: @SheffieldUnited
One such piece of play saw Grealish slot the ball into Alvarez, who looked to cut it back from the byline only to see it strike the arm of the defender. The referee immediately pointed to the spot and VAR had nothing to add to matters, so the decision stood.
Haaland has proved to be a goal machine since his arrival in Manchester and had never missed a penalty in the blue of City. As he ran confidently up to the ball, his side-footed effort came crashing back off the post when the keeper had dived in the opposite direction. The Norwegian looked as shocked as anyone by his ability to show human traits such as error.
Yet again VAR was brought into the spotlight when Haaland went to ground under the challenge of Robinson. The matter was reviewed and no penalty was given. Replays showed the Sheff Utd player wrap both arms around the striker, preventing him from going towards the ball, with both players ending up on the floor. Maybe they had been told they were in the WWE VAR room.
We now have a situation where people who have followed the game all of their lives now no longer know the rules. Either that or the people in the VAR room are doing magic mushrooms before every game and are just making it up as they go along. This was one such trippy decision.
City came out for the second half with the same intent to attack from the off and as Walker made a run down the right wing, his cross found Haaland in the box. The striker swept at it with his right foot but the ball went the wrong side of the post to suggest this was just not his day. The Man City fans haven’t been let down by a leggy blonde this much since Eva Price changed her hair colour in Coronation Street.
Grealish was causing problems for the hosts and as he once again teased the full back, he squared the ball to Rodri, who took one touch and shot at goal. Sadly for the visitors his left-footed shot narrowly missed the far post. It must be all that football he is being forced to play.
Credit: @ManCity
There was no let up for Sheff Utd as the alice band wielding winger stood another cross up to the far post where Erling Haaland met it with a bullet header that put Man City ahead. The blonde bombshell did not even celebrate the goal as he just seemed relieved to finally convert a chance.
This spurred Sheff Utd to get further up the pitch and Hamer had their first shot at goal in anger but it was well blocked by the defender. A mis-hit kick by Ederson, went straight to Ahmedhodzic who hit it first time, narrowly missing the visitors’ goal.
Man City were being really tested by The Blades and as the ball was half-cleared it was worked to substitute Bogle on the edge of the box who was not closed down. He took a touch to get the ball in front of him and drilled a shot into the bottom corner to get the hosts on level terms.
Sheff Utd felt that they had managed to steal a point in a game where they were under the cosh for the majority of it, the last time they had got a result against the run of play to this extent, Sean Bean was the goalscorer.
However, Man City are not in the business of crumbling under pressure and have a clinical edge to their game that has seen them dominate the Premier League. As they came forward once again, Walker found Foden with a cross but he could not get the ball under his spell.
Inadvertently, the mis-control by Foden dragged the ball behind him and Rodri thundered the ball into the top corner of the goal with a left-footed effort to send the away fans into raptures. Heartbreak for the Sheff Utd fans as Man City get a winner in the 88th minute.
Even in the absence of Guardiola, his side were able to secure all three points and take themselves back to the top of the table in dramatic late fashion. They fully deserved the points but Bogle’s late equaliser certainly tested The Citizens although they dug deep and managed to find a winning goal. They will have been singing and dancing in the Gallagher household long into the night after this one.
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