Erling Haaland scored his 20th Premier League goal of the season as Manchester City got their push for Champions League qualification back on track with a 1-0 victory at Tottenham.
Pep Guardiola’s men bounced back from Sunday’s home defeat to leaders Liverpool to move back ahead of Chelsea and into fourth ahead of their FA Cup fifth-round clash with Plymouth on Saturday.
City dominated the ball in the opening stages and it seemed only a matter of time before they would breach Spurs’ back-line.
Goal scoring machine 😤 pic.twitter.com/NFd3SbkHZG
— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 26, 2025
Jeremy Doku received the ball out wide and after the Belgium international showed great feet to get a yard of space on Pedro Porro, his guided pass was met by the unmarked Haaland who found the bottom-left corner for 1-0.
Doku’s isolation of Porro on the left was the root of all of Tottenham’s issues.
The elusive winger stood the full-back up once again and used his weaker left foot to find the unmarked Savinho at the back post, with City’s opposite winger scuffing the chance for a second goal over the crossbar.
Spurs had little to show for themselves heading into the break.
Lucas Bergvall was Tottenham’s shining light in the second half with the teenager’s immense dribbling ability beating City’s press prior to their best chance of the evening.
After the Swede dragged his side up the pitch, Porro was released down the right and his perfect cross was touched wide by the unmarked Wilson Odobert as a huge chance went begging at Ederson’s far post.
A five-minute spell of Spurs promise saw City begin to lose control of the match.
However, a series of poor attempts from January loan signing Mathys Tel let the visitors off the hook before substitute Son Heung-min was denied by a quick-thinking Ederson, who got down low to keep City’s clean sheet intact late on.
Phil Foden made a cameo as England manager Thomas Tuchel watched on ahead of the Three Lions’ World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia next month.
City were denied a second during four added minutes after Haaland was deemed to have handled the ball before scoring before Pape Sarr’s skied header from six yards meant City held on.
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