Premier, City-Brentford 1-0: goal from Haaland

Manchester City struggling to score goals? Erling Haaland takes care of it. In the 71st minute, the Norwegian brought down the Brentford fort on the counterattack, scoring for the 21st team of the 21 he has faced so far in his career in the Premier League and giving the champions a 1-0 win in added time for the match missed in December for the Club World Cup. Second place in the standings is worth it, with the same number of games, one point behind Liverpool, who play against Luton on Wednesday. Guardiola’s team deserved the triumph, but he scored only once in the 25 shots attempted: in the last two home games, City shot a total of 56 times, scoring just two goals. Few, even if they were worth 4 points.

THE KEYS

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Haaland’s performance, his 17th goal of the season in the Premier League as the icing on the cake of a match in which he had not shone up until then, solved the problems of Guardiola’s team, which had crashed against Brentford’s fort for too long. The Bees defended themselves with order, trying to tease on the counterattack especially with Toney, and fell thanks to a double error: that of Maupay in the pass that triggered City’s restart and that of Ajer, who slipped just as he was supposed to go to tackle Haaland prompted by Álvarez. Pep kept De Bruyne on the bench for the entire 90 minutes, but the champions must find a way to bring in that genius that only the Belgian seems capable of providing with continuity, the invention that is needed to beat teams that almost only think about defending like Brentford. In a hybrid formation with Walker as a pushing right-back, Foden and Álvarez played behind Haaland but neither of them had the light bulb of ideas on. The victory remains, the 12th in the last 13 games, good to put themselves behind Liverpool and continue to apply pressure. For Brentford, with goalkeeper Flekken as the best on the pitch without any ifs or buts, it is the fourth defeat in the last 5 games, one which leaves the margin on the relegation zone at 5 points.

THE MATCH

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City controlled from the start and Flekken soon became the Bees’ hero, with a series of saves which together with Mee’s save off the line in the 37th minute from Bobb sealed the 0-0 draw at the break. Guardiola asks Doku for help after an hour of play, but in the second half the champions’ ball possession becomes more sterile, their attacking actions more confused. The Etihad crowd calls for De Bruyne, but City finds the winning goal even without him: Haaland scores it in the 71st minute, closing a counterattack started by Rodri in the champions’ defensive midfield and continued by an illuminating verticalization by Álvarez. That’s enough to take second place behind Liverpool.