Man City survive Swansea City scare to keep Quadruple dream alive
The rise of Raheem Sterling is partly due to Pep Guardiola at Man City
On March 16th, Premier League champions Manchester City traveled to Wales for the FA cup quarter final clash against Championship side Swansea City. Pep Guardiola’s team kept hold of the ball and dominated the game early on but Swansea looked sharp on counters. The home side took their chances leading to a nightmare first half for the Premier League leaders.
Delph who made his first appearance for the Blues in 2019 conceded a penalty for a late challenge on Roberts. Grimes slammed the ball into the goal sending Ederson the wrong way. Man City’s academy graduate Bersant Celina added more misery to his former club. His slick combination with James took the City defenders by surprise. Celina completed the incredible move with a sublime goal by bending the ball to the top right corner. Swansea were in dreamland with a 2-0 lead over the Premier League leaders!
After the break, what ever Pep Guardiola said to his team in the dressing room worked. Man City’s attack on Swansea’s goal came wave after wave. Close to 15 minutes into the second half, Pep Guardiola made two changes – Sterling replaced Sane and Zinchenko replaced Delph. Man City looked more comfortable with Zinchenko occupying the left-back position. The Ukrainian added a different dimension to City’s attack by linking with Sterling but was also quick to track back and stop the counter-attacks on the right flank of the Swans.
Aguero replaced Mahrez as Pep’s final substitute. Just minutes after coming on, Sergio Aguero who had the space got his shot off in the crowded penalty area that bounced off the face of a Swansea City player and came kindly to Bernardo Silva. The Portuguese midfielder striked the ball with his left foot into the far corner of the goal to ignite a Man City come-back.
In the 78th minute, Raheem Sterling was brought down in the penalty box but replays showed that the defender won the ball. The referee pointed to the spot and Sergio Aguero slammed the ball into the left post and the ball instead of coming out, ricocheted off the goal keeper’s heel back into the goal. The score was 2-2 and Man City were pushing for the third with both their strikers Jesus and Aguero on the pitch.
With the game level, Swansea players were starting to feel the pressure and at times, gave the ball away easily. Jesus had a brilliant chance to score the third goal from a good cross of Raheem Sterling. The header was punched by Nordfeldt into the post and the rebound from Aguero was miraculously blocked by the Swansea goal keeper.
Manchester City had multiple chances to score and were unlucky to stay behind at the end of the hour mark but over the course of 90 minutes, one had to feel sorry for Swansea who put in an impressive performance. The might of the defending Premier League champions proved to be too much for Swansea at the end but they can still hold their chin up. Sergio Aguero completed the come back with a jumping header to meet a low cross from Bernardo Silva to the near post. Nordfeldt was well-beaten and Aguero scored yet another important goal in a City shirt. On replays, Aguero was spotted as offside for the third but the linesman didn’t spot it and the goal stood. VAR was not available at the Liberty stadium and Pep on his post-match interview said he felt sorry for Swansea if the City goal should have been ruled out.
Man City could have scored four or five on another day and were’t at their best. Despite that, they managed to carve out a win after falling behind showing their metal. With the Carabao cup already in the bag, Man City move on to the semi-finals of the FA cup. They lead the Premier League table and have made it to the quarter finals of the UEFA Champions League. With just two months to go, Man City’s chances of winning an unprecedented Quadruple is mounting after the side from Manchester showed grit and valour to grind out a hard-earned win at Wales.
LosMejor's Editorial Team includes a team of experts who cover the UEFA Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and the Carabao Cup. The Editorial team is headed by Deepak Selvan.
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