And with that, I’m on my way. Here’s the match report again. The match report is here, and there’s more live football here. Bye!
Pep Guardiola says the right stuff: they didn’t create good chances, Leeds defended well and broke well:
We were not aggressive enough. We arrived in the final positions but today we could not score a goal. The second half we were there. We didn’t create enough chances, but when we play teams that set up in that way with the pace they have on the counter-attack, we need to be careful. They have a team that in transition are fantastic, and I congratulate Leeds. We had shots, but not much clear chances. John Stones was fantastic, and Fernandinho as well. We arrived in the final third, but after that we didn’t create much.
Jamie Jackson has filed his match report from the Etihad Stadium:
Pep Guardiola selected a near second-string Manchester City and saw his champions-elect fall to a dying moments defeat by a 10-men Leeds side who may have allowed Manchester United to dream a little again of overhauling their local rivals.
The winner came when Stuart Dallas sprinted clear along the left and beat Ederson with as cool a finish as his opener, which had come as the break approached. City had been suckerpunched due to the siege they had mounted on their opponent’s goal following Liam Cooper’s deserved red card for a dangerous chop of Gabriel Jesus’s leg moments after Dallas’s opening goal. This was only a second loss for City in their last 24 league outings, and with the games running out they remain firm favourites to claim the third title of Guardiola’s reign.
Much more here:
Stuart Dallas is pleased:
They say you should never give up. But down to 10 men, they equalise and everybody probably thinks we’re going to cave in. But we managed to find something. It’s about how much you really want it, and giving that extra bit when it’s needed.
I’ve got nothing against Leeds United, though I carry the baggage of several decades of football-watching. I would say that I am entirely neutral towards them, though sometimes it requires a bit of effort. But that, that I found really quite joyful and life-affirming. Bloody good sport, well played.
Final score: Manchester City 1-2 Leeds United
90+7 mins: Leeds have only gone and won it! The shots stats makes it seems like an act of pure larceny but Leeds were excellent, restricted City to few decent chances, and had quality at both ends when they needed it.
90+5 mins: Cancelo, with five teammates in the penalty area, sends his cross straight to Meslier.
90+4 mins: Leeds United have had two shots. Manchester City have had 29.
90+3 mins: Raphinha is comically upended by Fernandinho, who takes the inevitable booking.
90+3 mins: It’s when goals like that go in that you really miss there not being an away end going completely mental for the TV cameras to cut to.
GOAL! Manchester City 1-2 Leeds United (Dallas, 90+1 mins)
Leeds only go and steal it on the break! The ball is played to Dallas, surging into an enormous gap between Stones and Fernandinho, and from the edge of the area he slides it through the legs of the advancing Ederson and into the back of the net!
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90+1 mins: Fernandinho heads a Gundogan cross into Meslier’s arms, as we go into three minutes’ stoppage time.
88 mins: Bernardo Silva dances into the area, nudges the ball inside Alioski, and shoots wide of the far post with his left peg.
85 mins: A chance for Leeds to steal a winner! Raphinha is played through, runs into the area, takes a slightly heavy final touch, and Ederson executes a perfect sliding tackle as the Brazilian tries to take the ball round him.
83 mins: Bernardo Silva is booked for fouling Raphinha after completely buying the Leeds player’s shimmy and sway in the centre circle.
81 mins: “I was already 99% certain I was going to cancel my sky/bt sports subscription at the end of this season because of VAR and the fact that football is no longer a contact sport seemingly and that red card is the final nail in that particular coffin,” writes Ronan. “They are destroying the beautiful game. ‘Furious’ doesn’t come close to how I feel.”
I really don’t think this was the worst of VAR. In fact it was classic VAR, a challenge that looks much worse in slow motion than it did live, and a referee who upgrades his decision after repeated viewings of slow-motion replays. Cooper won the ball and showed no violent intent, and I think that should have swayed the decision in his favour, but this referee gave the benefit of his doubt to the other side. It was irritating, certainly, and this game and thus an hour or so of my life has been worse for it, but it wasn’t unforgiveable. The real worst of VAR is the armpit-hair offside, which I will never be able to accept.
78 mins: Fernandinho picks up the ball about 35 yards out, and ahead of him several City players make runs and the Leeds defence scatters to shadow them. Fernandinho strides into the resulting space and has as long as he likes to size up his shooting opportunities, but eventually arrows his effort wide.
GOAL! Manchester City 1-1 Leeds United (Torres, 76 mins)
Finally they break Leeds’ resistance! Fernandinho finds Bernardo Silva, just onside, and instead of turning back towards goal he lays off to Torres, whose first-time effort from just to the right of goal finds the far corner!
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75 mins: Foden tries to jink his way into space in the area. Fat chance, mate. There are eight outfield Leeds players there, plus a keeper.
74 mins: Foden comes on to replace Mendy.
73 mins: Another City effort, Cancelo having a pop from the edge of the area that Meslier falls upon. Apparently Leeds have only had one shot today, and City are up to 22.
72 mins: Leeds get a chance to break, but Raphinha releases Alioski, who doesn’t have the pace to profit.
71 mins: Fernandinho’s vicious effort from 25 yards is straight down the middle of goal but high enough, and moving just enough, to force Meslier to tip over rather than catch.
70 mins: Phillips looks to have been clipped by Stones as Leeds try to break, but the referee doesn’t think so, so Phillips hops up and expertly dispossesses Cancelo to make sure City don’t profit.
67 mins: Cancelo’s free kick is dangerous, but Phillips heads it out and Gundogan lashes a shot high from the edge of the area.
66 mins: Alioski is booked for not touching Ferran Torres with a sliding tackle. Andre Marriner is buying everything City want to sell him today.
63 mins: Leeds bring Koch on for Roberts.
61 mins: Nar miss! Stones has yet another shot, which deflects off a defender to Gundogan, off whom it deflects again to Bernardo Silva, whose shot from six yards goes wide! This seems so unlikely the referee decides it must surely have been deflected, so gives City a corner.
60 mins: Stones, five yards outside the area once again, has a shot that would have gone in had Meslier not caught it quite easily.
58 mins: Gundogan comes on for Ake as City turn up the heat in the hunt for an equaliser.
56 mins: Every single person who has emailed me about the red card is furious about it. “Every time VAR does something stupid, I turn off the television,” says Michael Smith. “ It’s getting harder and harder to make it to the end of matches.”
54 mins: That was from another Stones run to the edge of the area and lay-off. He’s playing like he’s got money on himself getting an assist (which he obviously won’t, as that would be entirely improper).
53 mins: Chance for City! Zinchenko sends a stinging drive low and across goal from 18 yards, and Meslier holds it at the second attempt as Sterling ran in sniffing a rebound.
52 mins: Jesus is worked into a crossing position on the left, but blasts the ball straight into Phillips. It could have deflected pretty much anywhere, but chose over the bar.
48 mins: Stones, as he has many times today, waltzes down the middle to the edge of the Leeds area. Once there he decides someone else had better have the ball so, with no obvious pass on, he falls over instead and the referee gives City a free kick. Zinchenko sends it into the wall.
46 mins: Peeeeep! The second half has begun. No halftimely changes but immediately after the red card Struijk came on to replace Bamford.
A bit of post-red reaction as the players come back out ahead of half two:
“You have to question whether football is still a contact sport after that decision,” rages Roy Allen. “He played the ball, made glancing, unavoidable contact with an opponent in the follow through. The opponent, as they all do these days, acted like his leg had been smashed and convinced the perennially useless officials to wield a red card. The PL has the worst officials of any major league. Never mind the system they’re using: any system is only as good as the idiots at the controls.”
“I don’t know what effect it has on decision-making of referees, but having been shown that tackle by Cooper on Jesus approximately a bajillon times on loop, I feel like my leg’s been broken in half,” writes Kari Tulinius. “I don’t understand the utility of showing painful tackles that often to the viewing public.”
Half time: Manchester City 0-1 Leeds United
45+7 mins: It is finally half time, and Marcelo Bielsa has his work cut out.
45+6 mins: Into the sixth of three minutes of stoppage time, the first couple of which were themselves entirely stoppage.
45+2 mins: From the free kick Zinchenko sends another good cross into the box, and it hits the back of Stones’ head and goes wide.
Red card! Liam Cooper is sent off!
45+1 mins: It was clearly an honest attempt to win the ball, but after clearing it his right boot clipped Jesus’s right knee. It was a glancing blow, but in slow motion it is made to look reckless and out of control, and Andre Marriner is convinced.
45 mins: The referee is going to have a second look at Cooper’s tackle on the pitchside VAR screens.
44 mins: Liam Cooper is booked for steamrollering Gabriel Jesus with his follow-through after winning a bouncing ball.
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GOAL! Manchester City 0-1 Leeds United (Dallas, 42 mins)
Leeds take the lead against the run of play! It’s a long ball over the defence and down the flank - the left this time, to Helder Costa. He passes infield to Bamford, who touches further infield to Dallas, and his hard, low shot looks to be heading wide, but instead it hits the left-side post and goes just inside the other one!
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40 mins: There are moments when City’s team is looking decidedly second string. Phillips is dispossessed on the halfway line and Gabriel Jesus runs forward, with Sterling to his left and Torres to the right, but he ignores them both and instead takes a 20-yard shot that hits the nearest defender.
38 mins: Chance! Fernandinho goes on a lovely run, tricking his way inside Cooper and sliding a pass back to Sterling, a yard inside the penalty area. But the Englishman’s first-time, side-footed effort is really poor, and spins several yards wide.
36 mins: Leeds make nothing of their set piece, and Sterling then has a shot from 25 yards that goes well high of goal.
35 mins: Bamford beats Ake to the ball and goes over in an entirely cynical attempt to win a free-kick and perhaps even a booking - the Dutchman did swing a boot, but it didn’t touch player or ball. He wins a free kick. Ake gets booked.
34 mins: Chance for City! They win a free-kick on the left, which Zinchenko sends into the area. Ferran Torres wins the header, but he can’t get his effort on target.
31 mins: A good spell of City possession ends with Stones, five yards outside the penalty area, playing Fernandinho in down the right. His low cross is too close to Meslier, who clears with a trailing leg, but had it been a little bit even less well aimed it would surely have gone in, because the Leeds keeper had left his near post wide open.
27 mins: Sterling is looking City’s most likely defencebreaker. He jiggles his way into the area and lifts in a cross, but it’s straight into Ayling’s arm and demands for a penalty fall on deaf ears.
24 mins: A very bright game, this. There have been notably few sideways passes in either side’s own half, with both teams looking to get forward fast.
21 mins: Chance for City! They win a corner on the left, which skims Ake’s head and drops to Torres, who chests down and has a shot that hits Cooper and deflects away from goal.
19 mins: A shot on target! Sterling scampers down the left, cuts inside Llorente and has a right-footed shot straight at Meslier.
16 mins: Roberts gets in on the right side of the penalty area and sends in a low cross. I think Bamford must have been expecting Stones to cut it out, but he fails to do so and Bamford fails to capitalise!
14 mins: Raphinha is played in behind Mendy again. He’s offside on this occasion, but this is an issue. City are playing with two left-backs and an occasional left-back, and yet keep finding themselves without a left-back.
12 mins: Zinchenko lays the ball off to Stones and keeps going, but when stones pings the ball back towards him it’s a little too hard to bring down, and at an inconvenient height, but he manages to convert it into a corner.
9 mins: City hit a pass straight out of play, win the ball back from the throw-in and hit another pass straight out of play.
6 mins: Torres shanks a shot so badly the ball bobbles through to Mendy, standing eight yards from goal. He should have turned it in, but instead the ball skims his shin on its way wide and it was all immaterial because he was extremely offside.
4 mins: A lovely pass down the right sends Raphinha running clear, and he cuts the ball back towards Bamford but the ball runs behind the striker. City were entirely carved open by a ball over the top there.
2 mins: Stones carries the ball to the vicinity of the Leeds penalty area before offloading to Sterling, who can’t find Torres. This allows Leeds to touch the ball for the first time.
1 min: Peeeeeeep! City get the game going.
Before kick-off there will be two minutes’ silence in memory of HRH the Prince Philip.
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It has stopped snowing and started shining in Manchester as the players come out and line up for the Premier League anthem.
City’s players are gathering in the tunnel, as the countdown to kick-off, um, counts? Whatever it is that countdowns do, that’s what it’s doing.
Pep Guardiola looks cheerful as he has a chat with BT Sport’s microphone-wielder. He’s asked what he wants from Raheem Sterling:
Just [be] himself. He’s an important player for us. He has been. Everything we achieved in these past years, impossible to think without him.
And he’s asked to say some nice stuff about Marcelo Bielsa, of which this is a highlight:
I think he’s a present, he’s a joy for all people who love football. He helped me a lot when I hadn’t even started, and in bad moments in my career he helped me a lot. I am happy for his success.
Marcelo Bielsa here, carrying his imaginary watermelon into the ground before kick-off.
It is only snowing in Manchester. Enough winter already!
So there’s a Manchester City midfielder missing from both line-ups: Leeds have to leave out the on-loan Jack Harrison while City, as widely predicted, rest Kevin de Bruyne. He’s not the only player to have started against Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday who does not here: coming in for this game are Ake, Mendy, Fernandinho, Zinchenko, Torres, Gabriel Jesus and Sterling. Walker, Ruben Dias, Gundogan, Rodri, Mahrez and Foden are all on the bench this time, along with De Bruyne.
The teams!
The names in the frame for this game are the same as these:
Man City: Ederson, Joao Cancelo, Stones, Ake, Mendy, Bernardo Silva, Fernandinho, Zinchenko, Torres, Gabriel Jesus, Sterling. Subs: Walker, Dias, Gundogan, Steffen, Rodri, De Bruyne, Mahrez, Foden, Garcia.
Leeds: Meslier, Ayling, Llorente, Cooper, Alioski, Phillips, Raphinha, Dallas, Roberts, Helder Costa, Bamford. Subs: Koch, Poveda-Ocampo, Casilla, Hernandez, Struijk, Berardi, Gelhardt, Klich, Shackleton.
Referee: Andre Marriner.
The lads to face Leeds! 💪
— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 10, 2021
XI | Ederson, Cancelo, Stones, Ake, Mendy, Fernandinho (C), Zinchenko, Bernardo, Torres, Sterling, Jesus
SUBS | Steffen, Walker, Dias, Gundogan, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Mahrez, Foden, Garcia
⚽️ @HaysWorldwide
🔷 #ManCity | https://t.co/axa0klD5re pic.twitter.com/sLhzD5TfeJ
📋 One change to the Starting XI, with Costa in for Harrison who is ineligible to face his parent club
— Leeds United (@LUFC) April 10, 2021
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Hello world!
When these teams met at Elland Road in October Leeds had the majority of the possession, and won the shots-on-target battle 7-2 (City won the less hotly contested shots-off-target battle 14-2), but drew 1-1. The season was young then, and most teams had only played four games, but at that stage Leeds were eighth and City 14th. Everton were top with a 100% record. Ruben Dias made his debut.
But some things haven’t changed, including Pep Guardiola’s admiration for his opposite number, Marcelo Bielsa, a theme he has returned to this week. “If there is one person who can find the secret or the way we want to play it is him,” said Pep. “His work ethic and his knowledge about the game [is incredible]. People say he doesn’t win titles but give him Manchester City and he will win titles. It depends on the players you have but the players he has are always better players. That is the best proof of when a manager is good.”
The title thing is a pretty decent one though, and Guardiola is about to bank yet another of those. City need, at most, 11 more points to become champions of England once again, but Leeds’ hope here is that so great is their cushion in their table they might let their attention drift to the second leg of their Champions League tie against Borussia Dortmund, which will be played on Wednesday, and perhaps play a less than full strength side here. We’ll find out soon enough. Welcome all!
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