Manchester City, the defending champions, returned to a winning streak with a 3-1 win over Brighton on Saturday thanks to a brace from Norwegian striker Erling Haaland in English Premier League Stage 13.
At the last stage, City suffered their first defeat of the season in various competitions, losing 0-1 to Liverpool thanks to a goal from the Egyptian Mohamed Salah.
But he quickly returned to his favorite habit of winning, closing the gap with league leaders Arsenal to the point of knowing the latter could restore a four-point gap when he visits Southampton tomorrow Sunday.
In the match with Brighton, the Spanish coach Josep Guardiola made some changes to the squad that started against Liverpool, replacing the brilliant Phil Foden this season with the Algerian Riyad Mahrez and Jack Grealish, who came out in the second half, and the German Ilkay Gundogan, and Aymeric Laporte. returned to defense instead of the Dutchman Nathan.
Halland opened the scoring when he received a great long pass from Brazilian goalkeeper Ederson to the edge of the box, and also took advantage of Spanish goalkeeper Robert Sanchez’s incorrect exit from his box and won a physical fight in front of defender Adam Webster to put the ball into the net from outside the box at 22 th minute.
Halland doubled his team’s lead by converting a penalty from Portugal’s Bernardo Silva after returning to VAR.
The brilliant Belgian Leandro Trossard closed the difference in the second half with a superb strike from the outskirts of the right zone in the 53rd minute.
Belgian Kevin De Bruyne scored the third goal for Manchester City in the 75th minute with a stunning shot from outside the box into the top left corner.
Source: agencies