Premier League, Haaland show: Leeds 1-3 Manchester City

There was only one thing Alfie Haaland could still brag about with his son Erling: scoring more than him in his Premier League career. In Leeds, in the city where he was born, the cyclone from Norway takes away even this small satisfaction from the parent, who was in the stands to applaud him, overcoming him with a brace that earned City the 3-1 good to return to second place in the 5-man standings points from Arsenal. Haaland slips another record into it: he’s already on 20 league goals this season in just 14 games, a precocity record. As if to say that the month off for the World Cup, spent between Manchester, the Maldives and Italy, hasn’t rid him of his goal-scoring habit. Leeds, who had scored 11 in the last 4 games before Qatar, instead lost it but certainly not because of Willy Gnonto, starter for the second game in a row and the most active of him in attack.

PROTAGONISTS

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Haaland is the cover man. He plays with the desire to rock the world, with his first chance after just 40″. He runs dry in the first half, but finds the right combination in the second half with Jack Grealish (two assists, but also many sill errors) for his brace between the 51st and 64th minutes. It is what it was before the break: a goal machine, a striker who attracts all the attention of the opposing defenders. Kevin De Bruyne’s game was also splendid, the usual brain behind City’s most dangerous actions Guardiola confirms his trust in Rico Lewis, who at 18 years and 65 days becomes the youngest English starter for City in the Premier League since 2006. After making him start in the Carabao Cup on Thursday against Liverpool, Pep has lavished him with praise calling him the man of the match, due to his ability to be a right-back on paper but an added midfielder in reality: this is why he decided to confirm it, obtaining another good performance. Liore of Leeds: Willy Gnonto. Even if the goal that makes the final more interesting, after City went 3-0 up, is scored by Struijk with a fine header in the 73rd minute, the young blue is the liveliest of his forwards, as well as the first Leeds player to shoot towards Ederson’s goal when the match had already started from 32′. At Elland Road they fell in love with Gnonto, for his maturity, his intelligence and the potential of a player who keeps improving. Just what Leeds needs. And to the national coach Roberto Mancini, who does not take his eyes off him.

THE MATCH

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It took City a whole time to break through the attentive defense of Leeds, passing only in the first stoppage time with Rodri, who collects a short clearance by the excellent Meslier up to there on a shot by Mahrez. Cyclone Haaland broke out at the start of the second half: in the 51st minute Grealish served him the easiest of his goals of the season on a silver platter; in the 64th minute the Norwegian scored twice after a nice triangle again with the left winger with the number 10 on the shoulders of the AC Milan shirt of the City, inspired by Milan in the 60s. Up 3-0, with a belly full of goals, the English champions relax too much and Leeds takes courage. Gnonto on the left picks up the pace, Struijk shortens his header in the 73rd minute and the hosts come close on at least two occasions to the goal that would have brought them back into the match. But the party belongs to the City. And of Haaland, of course.

MARKET

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While Leeds and City were on the field, Liverpool made official the arrival of Cody Gakpo, the first big hit of the Premier winter market. “I think the Reds are the perfect club for me to try and show what I’m capable of,” the 23-year-old Dutchman told his new club’s website. for me it is also the right situation to grow, learning from the many great players there are”. Liverpool paid 42 million to Psv Eindhoven for its new number 18: the transfer will be effective on January 1, when the market officially reopens, and Gakpo could make his debut in the Premier League as early as the 2nd in the match at Brentford.