City held by Seagulls

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Manchester City F.C.

·15 Maret 2025

City held by Seagulls

City had to settle for a 2-2 draw with Brighton despite twice being ahead.

In an entertaining clash at the Etihad, the Blues went ahead early on through an Erling Haaland penalty.

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Brighton levelled through a Pervis Estupiñán free-kick before Omar Marmoush restored our lead before the break.

A scruffy own goal by Abdukodir Khusanov moments into the second-half ended the scoring in what was an open and entertaining clash.

What happened...

As expected, the visitors began in bright and confident manner and on seven minutes, Kaoru Mitoma thought he'd given his team the lead, but the ball brushed his hand - perhaps twice - as he collided with Stefan Ortega Moreno.

Referee Simon Hooper disallowed the effort and the VAR check confirmed the on-field decision.

A couple of minutes later, City were ahead.

Haaland picked up a misplaced Brighton pass on the halfway line and powered forward.

He laid the ball off to Omar Marmoush on his right and the Egypt star continued into the box, chopped inside and was caught by the challenge of Adam Webster as he did so giving the referee an easy penalty decision.

Haaland stepped up to send Bart Verbruggen the wrong way and claim his 100th Premier League goal involvement - a milestone achieved in just 94 appearances (84 goals and 16 assists) - quicker than anyone else in the competition's history.

However, our lead would last less than 10 minutes.

Georginio Rutter tool a tumble outside the City box under a challenge of Nico and Pervis Estupinan levelled from the resulting free-kick, with Ortega Moreno wrong-footed as the 20-yard shot thumped the post on its way into the back of the net.

The Blues had a golden opportunity to restore the lead on 32 minutes as Marmoush and Savinho exchanged passes on the right of the Brighton box and as the Brazilian got in behind the last defender he looked certain to score, but Jan Paul van Hecke's lunge seemed to put him off and his angled shot went well over the bar.

With 39 minutes played, however, City did regain the lead.

Ilkay Gundogan played a short pass to Marmoush who cut in from the left before powering a low shot in off the post from 22 yards out giving Verbruggen no chance.

A stray Nico pass just before the break allowed Brighton to go in on level terms as Joao Pedro nipped in-between Ruben Dias and Abdukodir Khusanov, with the latter's efforts to prevent the Brazilian scoring just enough to see him skew a shot just past the post.

After just three minutes of the second-half, Brighton were level as Webster's shot from a corner was turned on by Jack Hinshelwood and Khusanov was unfortunate to see his effort hit him and roll into the net for 2-2.

Just minutes after that, a Brighton counter-attack saw Pedro cross low from the left but Yankuba Minteh just failed to connect at the far post.

It was proving to be just as difficult as boss Pep Guardiola had predicted before the game.

There were no clear chances in the time that remained with neither side able to find a winner to enhance a top five finish.

Teams

CITY: Ortega, Lewis, Khusanov, Dias (C), Gvardiol, Nico, Gundogan, Savinho (Bernardo 58 (Foden 77), Marmoush, Doku, Haaland

Subs: Carson, Kovacic, Grealish, De Bruyne, Reis, Nunes, McAtee

BRIGHTON: Verbruggen, Hinshelwood, Webster (C), van Hecke, Estupinian, Baleba, Gomez (Ayari 75), Minteh (Gruda 83), Georginio (Welbeck 75), Mitoma (Adingra 83), Joao Pedro

Subs: Rushworth, Cashin, Slater, Knight, Wieffer,

ATTENDANCE: 52,471