Aston Villa — Manchester City 1:1. Erling Haaland’s tenth goal of the season proved insufficient for Manchester City to beat Aston Villa on the road, 1-1.
Douglas Luiz gets a place in the Villans’ starting line-up for the match against his former self, replacing Emiliano Buendia.
Kevin De Bruyne returns to the City starting line-up, replacing Julian Alvarez.
Having taken possession of the ball, City immediately put their opponents under considerable pressure. In the fourth minute, Ilkay Gündogan’s fine pass finds Kyle Walker on the right-hand edge of the penalty area, who shoots with all his might but misses.
Five minutes later, De Bruyne’s shot from distance was also misses.
Gradually, however, Villa adapt, forcing their opponents to play the ball away from Emiliano Martinez and shutting out Erling Haaland.
In the 38th minute, the home side almost opens the scoring. Ollie Watkins bears into the penalty area on the left but fails to hit the far corner of the goal.
No shots on target in the first half but the second half starts with a goal. De Bruyne crosses from the right wing to the far post where Haaland dives the ball into the goal to make it 0-1.
In the 58th minute, Villa can well equalize, but one-on-one Watkins lets the ball away and allows Ederson to make the save for City.
Having been spared a scare, the guests try to score a second goal, with De Bruyne in particular coming close in the 74th minute, firing a free-kick into the crossbar.
In the 74th minute, the game takes an unexpected turn. Jacob Ramsey dribbles down the left flank into the penalty area before firing a shot wide of the 11-metre mark to Leon Bailey who taps home the equalizer for a 1-1 win.
In the 80th minute, Philippe Coutinho, who comes off the bench, stricks Ederson’s goal with a fine long-range shot but catches offside.
The guests’ final assault is poor and they don’t make enough to win the game.
Villa and Steven Gerrard prove it’s too early to bury them by giving the reigning champions a battle. City are proving quite fragile defensively. So Aston Villa — Manchester City 1:1.