Manchester City close the gap in the title race after 4-1 victory over Southampton
- Haaland impresses again with overhead kick to bring his season tally to 30 in the Premier League.
- Win over Southampton puts City 6 points behind Arsenal with a game in hand.
Manchester City lined up with: Ederson, Stones, Akanji, Dias, Ake, Rodri, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Grealish, Haaland, Mahrez.
Coming into this game there was pressure on City as they can’t afford to drop any points leading up to the final game of the season where it could be all decided down to goal difference.
Despite this pressure City are coming off the back of a 4-1 victory over Liverpool FC who were battling with City all season last season for the title.
The first half began as always with Manchester City with them dominating possession. Southampton actually knocked out the PL Champions from the Carabao Cup this season in a 2-0 victory in January, so coming into this game the blues were wary of what Southampton were about.
Despite Manchester City dominating as per usual, they didn’t manage to get a goal until the stroke of half time where a ball from Kevin De Bruyne met the head of the Norwegian striker, Haaland in the 6-yard box where he managed to put the Champions 1-0 up with one of the last kicks of the half.
The second half begins and Southampton seem calm with only conceding 1 to this City team that are prolific at scoring all season long.
Nevertheless, in the 58th minute, the heavily criticised Jack Grealish gets past the defender to get a one on one with the keeper where the first shot was saved but the follow up from the £100million winger was too much for Bazunu and he makes it 2-0 for the blues.
The 68th minute came round and despite being 2-0 up, City showed no signs of slowing down as one of the goals of the season happened when Grealish makes a break down the left wing and puts a ball into the box for 6’5 Haaland to perform a magnificent overhead kick which blasts past the keeper to put the away side up 3-0 with 20 minutes to go.
With Manchester City’s massive Champions League tie coming up with Bayern Munich on Tuesday, Haaland takes to the bench for the rest of the game and World Cup winner Julian Alvarez takes his place.
However, Southamton also made two subsitiutions with Djenpo and Mara coming on who were the two goalscorers from the previous tie in January. These subsitutions were found to be the right ones since only 3 minutes after entering the field they combined to get a goal back for the Saints. 3-1.
However, City answered back with Alvarez making difference as his ball played into the penalty area for De Bruyne awards them a penalty when the number 17 is taken down in the box with a rash challenge from the Southampton defender.
Alvarez being the only striker on the field steps up and slots it past ex-city player, Bazunu to make it 4-1 to the away side here at St Mary’s stadium.
After that Alvarez goal, things went quiet at St Mary’s with City cruising over the finish line with a 4-1 victory closing the gap in the title race.
Manchester City’s Jack Grealish was awarded Man of The Match for his performance against bottom of the league, Southampton.
The blues next face Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Tuesday 11th April at the Etihad Stadium.