Brentford 0 Manchester City 1: match reportHaaland goal enough to get Blues over the line with vital victory away at Brentford
Manchester City travelled to Brentford on Sunday afternoon looking to climb the table and take advantage of points dropped by Liverpool and Crystal Palace. The Blues were on the back of a 2-2 stalemate away at Monaco during the week. Donnarumma started in goal with O’Reilly, Gvardiol, Dias, and Nunes were in defence. Rodri, Reijnders, and Foden were in midfield. Savinho and Bobb were on the wings with Haaland the sole striker.
It didn’t take long for City to open the scoring, with the first goal coming in the 9th minute after a great ball up the field from Gvardiol found Haaland, who after a tussle with the Brentford defence, knocked the ball past Kelleher to make it 1-0. Just the start City wanted. Numerous chances came for the Blues after this, but they couldn’t capitalise further. Foden missed a variety of chances and Reijnders almost made it two with a great volley, but it was straight at the keeper who parried it away. In the 20th minute, concern for City rose when Rodri signalled to the bench and had to be taken off in place of Gonzalez due to hamstring discomfort. City will hope that whatever is troubling the Midfielder is not too serious.
For the remainder of the first half still, City remained in complete control and maybe should’ve added more goals to their tally to reflect this but just couldn’t double their advantage.
In the second half, the story was much different, and the Blues didn’t catch many glimpses of the dominance they had in the first half with Brentford posing much more of a threat. Two minutes into the second half, striker Thiago was played through one on one with Donnarumma, but his shot was straight at the Italian, much to the relief of the Blues. Brentford chances continued with a cross into Kayode who headed the ball towards goal but was off target. It was looking like one of those games where City may regret not taking a 2-goal cushion, but the defence held firm.
Substitutions were made for City: Doku came on in place of Bobb and Bernardo came on in place of Reijnders. Nico O’Reily was booked and Nunes was also given a yellow card for blocking a free kick. Gvardiol aside from his mistake dealing with the long ball that played Thiago through, remained solid in defence and was key in keeping Brentford’s attack at bay. In the 90th minute, Donnarumma almost made an incredibly costly mistake after failing to clear the ball on time as Schade charged towards him. Luckily for the goalkeeper and for City, the ball richoet’d away from the goal rather than straight into it – another unnecessary goal to drop points just about avoided for the Blues. The referee eventually blew for full time and major relief overcame the City players and fans – winning at Brentford after dropping points at the same stadium earlier in the year last season.
City now move into fifth place, just three points off league leaders Arsenal going into the international break. The Blues have not experienced defeat since before the September international break and will look to continue this strong form when the season resumes in two weeks with the next game at home against Everton. Khushanov, Cherki, Marmoush, and Ait Nourti are all expected to make a return to match fitness following the October internationals – with Rodri also now not travelling with Spain but in his own words, hopes to be able to play in the next game.
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