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Seeing double
Manchester City suffered a rare setback in their Premier League title chase, losing 2-1 to Leeds United.
A pair of goals from Stuart Dallas gave the Peacocks their first Premier League win at the Etihad.
Game Story
City came into this match knowing they needed 11 points to guarantee another Premier League title.
Pep Guardiola made seven changes to the side that played against Dortmund in mid-week.
Leeds looked the hungrier side early on and had a good chance in the 16th minute.
Tyler Robert snuck in the right-hand channel with a lovely low cross in the six-yard box that went beyond John Stones and Nathan Ake towards the dangerous Patrick Bamford.
Fortunately for City, the Leeds man overran the cross.
That seemed to wake City up a little as they had a good chance in the 20th minute.
Fernandinho slipped Raheem Sterling free with an excellent ball down the left-hand channel.
However, the City striker put his effort towards to near post but too close to Illan Meslier, who made the save.
Fernandinho and Sterling combined well again in the 39th minute.
The City captain made a nice surging run before finding Sterling near the top of the penalty spot; however, the Englishman fired a first-time effort wide.
It’s a chance he would come to rue as Leeds took the lead in the 42nd minute.
Helder Costa did well to latch on to a Liam Cooper long ball, nodding it towards Patrick Bamford.
The Leeds striker smartly laid a pass off to Dallas, who drilled a right-footed shot off the post and in past Ederson.
A few minutes later, Leeds were down to 10 men after a needless sliding tackle from Cooper on Gabriel Jesus.
Initially, he received a yellow card, but the referee was told to check the VAR monitor.
After reviewing the incident, Cooper was dismissed for what was deemed to be using excessive force on the challenge.
City pressed hard for an equaliser in the second half.
In the 67th minute, Joao Cancelo’s set-piece missed John Stones, but the danger was only cleared as far as Ilkay Gundogan, who rifled a left-footed drive just over the bar.
Fernandinho made another run forward in the 72nd minute, unleashing a drive from 30 yards away that Meslier didn’t take any chances with and tipped over the bar.
A minute later, an excellent cut in off the right-hand side from Cancelo, who whipped in a low left-footed cross that Meslier was able to get to it before anyone else.
City finally found the breakthrough in the 76th minute.
Fernandinho found Bernardo Silva’s feet, who poked it towards Ferran Torres as the Spaniard curled a brilliant right-footed shot into the bottom left corner.
Into injury time, though Leeds found a shocking winner.
A lovely one-two between Costa and Ezgjan Alioski caught the City defence napping, with Alioski feeding Dallas roaming down the middle.
Dallas was able to get in between John Stones and Fernandinho, firing a right-footed shot through the legs of Ederson.
Man of the Match
When you play against a defence like Man City, you have to make the most of your opportunities.
That’s precisely what Stuart Dallas did today for Leeds, scoring on the only two shots on target his team had.
City had 72% of the possession, but all that counts at the end of the day is what’s on the scoreboard.
The Northern Irishman did a ton of work throughout the 90 minutes, covering more ground (12.13 km) than any player on this day.
A First
Today’s loss marks the first time in 42 top-flight fixtures that City have lost to a newly-promoted side.
Giant Killers
With today’s win, Leeds achieved a rare feat that few promoted sides have ever done.
They’re just the fourth newly promoted team to win away against the Premier League leaders in this competition’s history.
Long Range
Leeds United barely had the ball today, but when they did, their shooting accuracy from outside the box was on point once again.
That’s a recurring theme with Marcelo Bielsa’s side, who have been very successful firing from a distance.
Leeds have scored 12 goals this season from outside the box; that’s more than any Premier League team.
Not yet
Pep Guardiola will have to wait till next season to try and get a victory against the Peacocks.
Out of the 77 sides he’s faced as a manager, Leeds and Middleborough are the only teams Pep Guardiola has never beaten.
Managers Words
City manager Pep Guardiola hopes this match can be a learning experience for his squad seeking a quadruple.
“What happens when you lose a game is you realise how difficult it is what we’ve done so far. When you see the last 27 or 28 games, we’ve won 26; you realise how difficult it is what we have done. The Premier League must be won, so we need points still because our opponents could win all their games, so we need to do it again. Now we have, of course, Aston Villa in the middle, but the next four games, three are like we have finals, Champions League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup. Defeat sometimes is necessary to understand what we have done and what we have to do to move forward.”
Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa meanwhile says his team were full marks for the victory.
“They dominated the game; the majority of the chances at goal were in their favour. But the result was deserved because of the character, personality, effort and fortitude from a mental and physical point of view.
“It is a little bit strange to say it – as it would have been fair for City to win – but we deserved to win.”
Next Up
City faces a pivotal week upcoming in their quest to win a quadruple.
They travel to Germany for the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund, leading 2-1.
Wednesday’s kickoff from Signal Iduna Park is at 8 pm.
Next Saturday, they face Chelsea in the FA Semi-finals from Wembley Stadium.
That match gets underway at 5:30 pm. (JSL).
