Manchester, England – In an interesting soccer match on Sunday, Manchester City faced a shocking loss to Crystal Palace. No one had expected this result and every fan of City looked shocked after the match got over. Both the team as well as its manager could not believe what happened on Sunday night. A loss of 2-3 to Crystal Palace, that too at the home ground is somewhat unacceptable for a team like Man City. The team’s manager, Pep Guardiola asked the team to learn a lesson from this defeat and not to repeat the same performance again in the future.
When the match started, everything seemed well and then Crystal Palace took the charge of the game. In the first half, Man City was behind Crystal Palace by 1 goal which got converted to 2 goals a few minutes after the start of the second half. Although Man City’s mid-fielder was injured and could not become the part of the playing squad, still the team was supposed to win the Match. After this defeat, Man City lagged behind Liverpool by 4 points.
On the choice of John Stones as a replacement for the mid-fielder, Fernandhino, Guardiola said, “I don’t know. I’m only the manager”. He further added, “I don’t know what would have happened if Kevin had started, Sergio had started. Fernandinho is not fit and John played so well there (in the League Cup tie) at Leicester, I wanted to give him another situation. He played well. He was quick, except once on the ball in the beginning.”
No matter what were the shortcomings of Man City but one must appreciate the performance of Crystal Palace in the match. The team players put their 100% in the game and never allowed Man City to take charge of the match. Palace’s manager Roy Hodgson said, “Today was one of those bonanza days. You get your work rate as it should be, you get your shape and discipline as it should be, then you also score goals. To score three goals away from home against a team of this quality says a lot… and makes you wonder where they have been up until now.”
This is Man City’s defeat at home after a gap of 8-months. And the strange thing is Man City had lost to Crystal Palace 28 year ago on the same date. It would be interesting to see how Man City recover in the upcoming matches.
Be First to Comment