[ad_1]
With three minutes of injury time remaining, I made the decision to pack my City scarf and plan my escape from the Etihad to Manchester Piccadilly Station and the train back to London before United fans had time to leave at streets to celebrate. snatching the title.
Then Edin Dzeko scored to make it 2-2 against the 10-man QPR, and I thought to myself that we would probably have one more scoring chance in the last few minutes or so to win the game, and the first league title. of the City since 1968. What I did not expect was that we would take a chance and win a title that we seemed, just minutes before, destined to lose with all the inevitable “typical city” taunts.
From a feeling of absolute despondency, let’s not forget that it was just a football game, to total euphoria in the space of three minutes is a great journey of emotions.
I have been a City fan since my father first took me to Maine Road in 1972 and never, watching several hundred of their games since then, have I come close to the ecstasy of watching the ‘Aguero moment’.
Just a decade earlier, we had been in the third tier of English football and I was present when the not-so-powerful Wycombe Wanderers completed a historic league double at Maine Road. There were many more indignities at the hands of the City of York, Lincoln City and Bury before the rebirth with Sergio Agüero really began on that unforgettable day in May 2012.
The irony is that he could easily have been charged with a penalty after a crude and belated challenge from a QPR defender before Mario Ballotelli’s pass was taken away from him to make Premier League history. Who knows what would have happened if it had been sanctioned? Not that I would have known it in my seat at the other end of the court, a seat that I call my ‘Aguero seat’ because I will always remember the moment I saw that goal come in and 40 years of red hurt by the other. The Manchester side disappeared and a new era was born. I still have that seat and will go back there next season, if Covid restrictions allow.
Aguero is City’s record scorer, whose brilliance over 10 seasons has been a pleasure to witness.
There was absolute pandemonium in the stadium after his goal came in – the fans hugged complete strangers from several rows back like long lost friends. Tears everywhere I looked.
Few people outside of Manchester’s red half and perhaps some older generation Arsenal fans will dispute that in terms of drama, it was the greatest moment in Premier League history. Doing it on ‘Fergie time’ made it even sweeter.
Now that Sergio is leaving at the end of the season, I dream that he has one last piece of history: playing a role for City by winning the Champions League.
It was dreams that kept me, along with tens of thousands of other City fans, through the dark days of the 1998-1999 season at the third tier.
Thanks for all the good memories, Sergio. Tell us one more. You, more than any of the brilliant stars of the last decade (David Silva, Vincent Kompany, Yaya Touré, etc.) have made a City fan who once suffered a lot very happy.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
[ad_2]
