Manchester City return to action this Sunday against Bournemouth as club football gets back underway following the final international break of the season.
City look to salvage silverware from a difficult campaign across competitions as they face off against the Cherries this weekend, with the prospect of an FA Cup victory remaining the last hope of success for Pep Guardiola’s men.
Manchester City come into this crucial fixture two weeks on from a disappointing 2-2 league draw with Brighton & Hove Albion after some fundamentally poor defending cost the champions’ more valuable points – an all-too-familiar story this season.
Truthfully, given the way the game unfolded, City were perhaps fortunate to even come away with a point. The game was open and end-to-end from start to finish, with an abundance of chances falling to both teams.
City took the lead early on after a rash challenge on Omar Marmoush inside the 18-yard box won the reigning Champions a penalty, which Erling Haaland calmly dispatched past Bart Verbruggen.
Brighton then restored parity just 10 minutes later after Pervis Estupiñán curled a brilliant set piece past Stefan Ortega Moreno from the edge of the box as the ball struck the inside of the post and nestled into the back of the net.
As the first-half drew to a close, Marmoush restored the lead for the home side as the Egyptian fired an exceptional long-range strike into the bottom corner, making the score 2-1 at the interval.
In the second-half, however, the momentum swung heavily in favour of the visitors as chaos ensued from a corner just three minutes after the break as the City back line failed to clear the ball, resulting in it cannoning off Abdudokir Khusanov into the back of the net.
Brighton would rue previous missed opportunities as the game finished 2-2 with points being shared between the sides. Given the complexion of the game, a point wasn’t an awful result for City, but it still felt like two valuable points dropped in the race for European football.
City’s opponents this weekend come into the game in relatively poor form, having not secured a win over 90 minutes since a 1-3 away victory against Southampton. Since then, Bournemouth have lost three and drawn two, only progressing in the FA Cup fifth round via a penalty shootout against Wolves following a 1-1 draw in normal time.
In terms of implications, this game is absolutely vital for both, with the Blues’ looking to progress to a seventh successive FA Cup semi-final and rescue an underwhelming season through potential glory, whilst Bournemouth have their eyes set on making history, as ...
