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By the time you read this, Benjamin Mendy may have tweeted to declare himself the new Sergio Agüero and, in fairness to the fun-loving French defender, he produced a stylish ending to move Manchester City closer to another title. Leicester held off the elected champions for nearly an hour, but the victory for the imperious visitors was confirmed when Gabriel Jesus made it 2-0.
Aguero was given a start in the week City announced their imminent departure, but the club’s record scorer had little joy for more than an hour on the pitch, yet City won comfortably. “The players again showed how consistent they are,” Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said. “We need four more victories to win [the title] again. “That’s surely the minimum goal now in a season where quadruple is a tantalizing possibility.
With his workload intensifying as the season draws to a close and a Champions League showdown against Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday, Guardiola rotated his squad for the journey to an excellent team from Leicester. But the strength of his squad means he can do it without prompting allegations of complacency – his starting lineup cost more than £ 500 million.
Agüero spearheaded City’s attack and no doubt intended to give the club even more goals to remember him, but his first appearance, in the fifth minute, was to do the opposite, as Fernandinho’s long-distance shot was cut off because the Argentine had blocked. view of the goalkeeper offside.
Leicester was left without Caglar Soyuncu, who remains in Turkey after testing positive for Covid-19 while on international duty. Brendan Rodgers chose not to deploy the same formation that helped his team win at the Etihad in September, choosing instead to stick with a two-pronged attacking force of Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho, but the game plan was similar, with Leicester. without trying to match. -to-to-to-to-to-to-to-to-the visit. City dominated possession from the start. “Basically, only one team was playing,” said Kevin De Bruyne, who masterfully orchestrated that play.
Aguero got his first shot in the 18th minute after poor control by Jesús and an incomplete clearance by Jonny Evans. The forward followed suit, whistling his volley from the edge of the box to send the ball over the bar. De Bruyne came much closer from outside the box four minutes later, firing a shot over the wall and beyond Kasper Schmeichel’s reach, and into the crossbar.
Schmeichel had to improvise to make a clever save with his right foot just before half-time to deny Riyad Mahrez after a skillful play by Jesús. After De Bruyne and Jesús failed to find their target with two more half chances, Leicester welcomed the halftime whistle.
City started the second half with the same authority they had shown during the first, but Leicester continued to challenge them. The hosts even launched a couple of counterattacks and in the 50th minute Ederson was finally forced to save when Youri Tielemans unleashed a flight from 20 yards. Two minutes later Tielemans made another foray after a difficult run by Iheanacho, but Aymeric Laporte rallied to block the Belgian’s shot. That pressure was fleeting. Soon the visitors took the lead.
After intense interaction between De Bruyne and Mahrez, Schmeichel parried a shot from the Algerian international. Rodri recovered the ball from the right and threw it towards the back post, where Tielemans did so brilliantly to prevent Jesus from connecting. But the ball broke for Mendy, who eluded Marc Albrighton with a right foot feint, which he used to guide the ball past Schmeichel and into the far corner.
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Sterling replaced Agüero and could have scored in the 72nd minute, but instead dodged Ricardo Pereira and rolled the ball towards Jesús to hit the net from close range. Leicester tried to rebel, but the closest they got was when James Maddison threw a shot into Ederson’s arms from 10 yards.
