As usual in the Christmas season, football in England does not rest. On the penultimate day of the year the twentieth day of the English Premier League closes. After knowing the resounding victory of Liverpool against Arsenal, it was the turn of Pep Guardiola's side Manchester city side who visited the St. Mary's Stadium to face Southampton.
It should be remembered that the citizen are in third position, ten points below the 'reds', and they come from two consecutive defeats. On the other hand, the 'saints' are in the seventeenth position, just one point above the bottom table.
THE CITY RETURNS TO DOMINATE AND ENDS UP KILLING THE 'SAINTS'
As expected, the guest Manchester City started the game fully parked with lots of attacks and opportunities and precisely, in the 5th minute, Bernardo Silva warned with a shot from inside the area, but McCarthy, attentively saves the ball easily. Just a few minutes later, David Silva finished a beautiful play by the Portuguese to put Manchester City 0-1 up on the scoreboard in the 10th minutes. With the passage of minutes, Manchester City completely dominated the control of the ball. Just in a play of several passes between the citizen players, Mahrez was close to scoring the second, but his shot went slightly off target. Meanwhile, Southampton could not get the ball and could not find a way to get close to Ederson's goal.
At 26 minutes, Kun Aguero received a magnificent pass into the small area, but Southampton Goalkeeper McCarthy, with a great reflex action, avoided the goal of the Argentine. Despite the dominance of the visitors, in a corner kick, Austin was close to making the draw, but the Brazilian goalkeeper avoided it with a great save. Practically on the next play, Hojbjerg took advantage of an error by Zinchenko to equalize the match with a Suberp finish to give the saint an equalizer in the 37th minutes.
MCCARTHY SAVED HIS TEAM FROM A LANDSLIDE
However, just in the added time of the first half, on an isolated play, Sterling made a pass back and the ball touched Ward-Prowse and slipped into the back of the net. Only a minute later, on the last play of the first half, Agüero made it 1-3 to City with a fine header from the cross of the Left Back Zinchenko.
At the start of the second half, the Saints coach Ralph Hasenhüttl decided to bring in Redmond just to put more gunpowder in the attack. Even so, the City kept coming and creating danger. Just ten minutes into the second half, McCarthy returned to save his own team after making a magnificent save from Sterling's curled shot. Despite the advantage on the scoreboard, City continued to attack in search of a new goal. Riyad Mahrez had a very clear opportunity, but McCarthy was again attentive to clear the Algerian's shot.
With five minutes to go until the end of the match, things got even more complicated for the home side. The referee decided to take the red straight to Hojbjerg for an ugly challenge on Fernandinho. Finally, City was worthy of the goals they scored from the first half, and with that victory, the city claimed a three vital points that serve to overtake Tottenham on the table and closed the gap to seven points.
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