SOBS ON CITY
Well - what do you make of that? Scoring three times away from home and still losing takes some accepting, but there were so many positives to take from the game. OK, so we basically gave them their first two, but their third came after what looked very much like a handball, and Meunier was most definitely shoved out of the way. The way we hit back quickly, the way we kept going until the end... but I've always preferred Blur to Oasis.
Our cocktail stop in Bury was augmented by steam trains and the Bury 10k run, but it was nice to be back and to pick the team - which we got wrong. Defend for 90 minutes or go for it? Difficult choice. After the quietest concourse since COVID, we found out seats and saw which team Regis had chosen.
Roefs
Mukiele Ballard Danso Methalie
Xhaka (c) Sadiki
Meunier Le Fee Angulo
Brobbey
... and a bench of Isidor, Hume, Fofana, Ellborg, Alderete, Ahoka, Talbi, Rigg, and O'Nien.
Attacking the far end, we kicked off and it was soon apparent that Meunier was taking the Hume role - swapping midfield forays with defensive duties as he and Nordi exchanged positions. Methalie had a great driving run down the left, shaking off opponents before Enzo put in a low cross that was scuffed wide - too far away for me to identify the culprit, though.
Methalie chased back the first City attack and was carded for an obvious foul, and somehow Fernandez, who'd been booed even louder than Anderson, put it around the goal side of our two man wall and in. The keeper can't have been happy with that - I know I wasn't. Only nine gone and a goal down at the Etihad is not a good situation - but we're not the Sunderland of old, and only a couple of minutes later we moved down the right and Enzo popped it between their defenders to find Brobbey - and he popped it past Donnarumma. 1-1 and game very much on.
We were getting crosses in early and making the blue defenders work but we needed to be more careful with the ball, as we gave it away a few times when not really under pressure. Not a good idea when faced with individual quality as such as City possess. As the half hour approached, we took forever to try and get it upfield (also known as fannying about at the back) and City won it back to score.
Do the simple stuff correctly, Lads!
Angulo quickly won us a corner, and after that was cleared we won it back and another sweet move saw Meunier take another defence-splitting Enzo pass and square it past Donnarumma to Brobbey who had the whole net to hit. 2-2, and no more than we deserved. Four goals in little over half an hour. Entertaining stuff - but the five minute VAR intervention did its best to kill the mood. Just bin it, please!
City's third came after we lost the ball in midfield again, but VAR chose not to mention the possible handball or the pretty obvious shove to get Meunier out of the way. It fell to Semenyo who invoked the curse of the former player by blasting it in from just inside the area. Two minutes to the break, and Haaland somehow missed the target then wasn't booked for a late one on Dan as five extra minutes were announced. We won a corner on our left which Nordi headed back in only for us to head into Donnarumma's hands.
2-3 down and all three of theirs could be classed as preventable. Still, we were very much in the game and had we been in the lead there couldn't really have been any complaints from the home fans.
No changes for the second half for us, and we nearly got in from the left through Angulo. More determined play saw us set Sadiki away down the inside left channel a couple of minutes in, but he blazed it high and wide. Virtually any other player would have at least hit the target, but Noah seems destined never to score.
Brobbey was, as ever, getting a lot of attention but wasn't getting any decisions despite being hauled to the ground a few times. At the other end, a good tackle took a really unfortunate deflection to land perfectly for Semenyo to fire in their fourth on 57 minutes. 2-4, but we didn't take long to reduce the deficit. Xhaka found Angulo on the left, and his cross evaded the home defence for Brobbey to complete his hat trick from about a foot out.
On came Fofana for Angulo, City won a couple of corners- we put the first back out for another the second sailed harmlessly beyond everybody. On 67 Regis showed his intentions by swapping Sadiki for Isidor and a minute later something strange happened - we got a free for a foul on Brobbey!
Ha'way Lads, we can win this - and so nearly drew level when their keeper didn't hold a cross and a miskick by Dias was bouncing towards the net only to be hooked off the line by the same player. A long throw by Methalie caused havoc and City had to block two goal-bound efforts before they were awarded a free in the box. Donnarumna tried to take it from several yards outside but the ref told him to get it back. So he rolled it back outside and took it from there anyway. Really weak refereeing, that. Top six bias conspiracy theories abounded in the visitors' section.
Another corner to us, from the right, saw two defenders climbing on Issy but he was adjudged to be the offender. Hume replaced Meunier with twelve to go in a like for like swap. Fofana had a pretty tame effort saved, then City had one chalked off for offside, only for another VAR intervention to decide that Haaland was actually onside. 81 minutes, 5-3.
Roefs produced a great save with five to go, then Dan's deflected effort was tipped onto the post and out for a corner. Five added minutes were announced as Fofana had a header saved, but we couldn't get anything back.
A bit like Villa Park last season, we'd given a top team a real game and got nothing - it'll probably get called the game of the season but I'd rather it was dull as owt and we won thanks to an own goal.
Man of the Match? Another impressive shift from Mukiele and Danso (but you can't be MOTM if your defence let's in five, sorry), and more clever, precise stuff from Enzo, but you can't score three times and not get the nod. Thanks, Brian.
Now for a few weeks off.
