Double of the insatiable Haaland against ‘his’ Leeds

He returned to his hometown, facing the team he supported as a child when his father played for him and in the rival bank was the coach who guided his first steps in Salzburg. But Erling Haaland could not be satisfied, he put sentimentality aside and signed a double that helped Manchester City clearly defeat Jesse Marsch’s Leeds (1-3).

Haaland has 26 goals in 20 games played since his arrival at City this season and in the Premier he is the player to reach 20 with the fewest games (14). And that, despite the double, he had a clear chance to score five in the presence of his father Alf-Inge in the stands.

He would have scored after 30 seconds

The Norwegian star, heavily absent from the World Cup in Qatar, scored after the break in Thursday’s 3-2 win over Liverpool in the League Cup round of 16 and now he opened the scoring after 30 seconds of play when Nathan Aké had a long ball that left him alone, but Illan Meslier avoided him with a provincial hand.

The French goalkeeper kept Leeds on their toes in the first half with some notable saves. After half an hour, he again frustrated Haaland one-on-one after a delicious pass from Kevin de Bruyne, who again lost his balance with his changes of pace and quality of passes.

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Meslier also blocked a shot from Ilkay Gündogan and, already on a discount in the first half, he made another good save from a Riyad Mahrez attempt, but Rodri took advantage of the rebound to beat him at will.

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After the break Haaland, until then relatively unnoticed, was released. He only needed to push into the net to make it 0-2 into the empty net when Jack Grealish gave him the goal after stealing and running away alone (51′). The winger, who squandered several good chances, made up for it with this action.

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Ten minutes later, the Grealish-Haaland connection again forged 0-3 when the Norwegian pushed home a delayed pass from the Englishman, now making De Bruyne his best assistant. Victory was to elude City, although Leeds went down with honors as they could only close the gap with a corner kick headed in by Pascal Struijk (74′).

Meslier avoids the Norwegian ‘hat trick’

After Meslier denied Haaland a ‘hat trick’ as he broke free again, substitute Joe Gelhardt made it 2-3 by curling a cross shot just wide after Sam Greenwood’s pass from underneath.

The victory allows City to regain second place in the Premier League that Newcastle temporarily took from them on Tuesday and, more importantly, not give up on a superb Arsenal, leaders with a five-point lead.

LEEDS

13

CITY OF MANCHESTER

Leeds: Messier; Kristensen (Ayling, 65′), Koch, Cooper (Diego Llorente, 72′), Struijk; Greenwood, Marc Roca, Forshaw (Klich, 65′); Aaronson (Gyabi, 83′), Rodrigo (Gelhardt, 72′), Gnonto
City of Manchester: Ederson; Rico Lewis (Cancel, 68′), Stones, Akanji, Aké; De Bruyne, Rodri, Gundogan; Mahrez (Palmer, 88′), Haaland, Grealish (Foden, 73′)
Goals: 0-1 Rodri (45′), 0-2 Haaland (51′), 0-3 Haaland (64′), 1-3 Struijk (73′)
Referee: Stuart Attwell. Yellow cards: Rico Lewis (62′), Klich (70′), Gnonto (71′), Rodri (81′), Greenwood (85′), Palmer (92′)
Spectators: 36,889 at Elland Road

see the match sheet