With Ilkay Gündoğan and Kevin De Bruyne as flashy leaks, Erling Haaland signed a double that showed off his boundless greed, which Manchester City took advantage of by winning 0-2 over West Ham on their Premier League debut.
After losing to Liverpool in the Community Shield, Pep Guardiola’s men couldn’t take another blow. There was a lot at stake in his Premier League debut, but above all, all the lights were on one player: Erling Haaland.
City’s brightest reinforcement was lost in the very first official match. Many doubted his suitability for the style of Guardiola’s team. In fact, against Liverpool, he didn’t even touch the ball twenty times in the entire match.
Although he had already scored in a friendly match against Bayern Munich, in the moment of truth he failed. Guardiola had to do some retouching to turn things around and seated Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez to make room for Ilkay Gundogan and Phil Foden. With the German on the field, City gained some verticality and depth. And Haaland won from this.
Away from Dortmund’s verticality, this seemed out of place. Gundogan then came in to filter out a line-to-line pass that needed the steps of Haaland, who used his powerful running steps to touch the ball at just the right moment.
Alphonse Areola, who had just replaced Lukas Fabianski with an injury, clearly brought down the Norwegian, who later converted a penalty that gave the Citizens the lead at half-time. Haaland, of course, took a lot off his shoulders. This start and his success from eleven meters gave him enough credit to play the second act without pressure.
There was almost no news from West Ham, except for a headbutt by Mikhail Antonio two minutes later. I needed to react urgently in the second period. In it, he tried to advance his lines in order to get higher towards the Cityball exit. It worked for a while until the match broke. And at that moment Haaland entered his territory.
With space, it’s unbeatable. And with pitchers like Gundogan or De Bruyne, his chances of maintaining his greed increase. And for the second goal, De Bruyne seemed to create a spectacular pass out of nothing that left Haaland three steps away from the goalkeeper. He gave them away in one breath, stood in front of Areola and did not forgive.
Shock practically died there. The 0-2 left West Ham almost constantly sleepy. As he was tightening the screws at City, Haaland showed up to put out a possible fire. In the debut, the “townspeople” scored three points. Of course, without much brightness. The arrival of Gundogan and De Bruyne, together with Haaland’s gluttony, paved the way for a team of Guardiola who, with a predator in their ranks, could sweep away the premier.
Source: La Opinion
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