Tottenham 0, Man City 2
Erling Haaland scored a brace and Stefan Ortega made three crucial saves as Manchester City beat Tottenham to go top of the Premier League.
Embed from Getty ImagesIt was a nervous game at an apprehensive Tottenham Hotspur Stadium but it was a game for three goalkeepers with sub keeper Stefan Ortega coming off the bench for a dazed Ederson and making the saves as much as Haaland scoring the first league goals at the new Tottenham Stadium that won the match for City.
When Heung-min Son went clean through in the 86th minute with City only 1-0 up Pep Guardiola fell to the ground with his head in his hands having seen the title slip from City’s grasp before Ortega made a massive save.
With just one match day to go City are two points ahead of Arsenal and only West Ham, who they must beat on Sunday, stand between them and a historic fourth successive Premier League title.
City made just one change from the side that beat Fulham at the weekend with Kyle Walker coming back into the side for the injured Nathan Ake.
Rodrigo Bentancur underlined a good start for Spurs by firing in a rising shot that Ederson saved.
Kevin De Bruyne had a shot deflected while Phil Foden was denied from point blank range by a reaction save from Guglielmo Vicario.
Erling Haaland was outmuscled by Radu Dragusin after he ran on to a through ball.
And Van de Ven and Dragusin blocked efforts by Haaland and Bernado Silva as the relatively nervous first half came to an end.
De Bruyne’s turn and low shot was tipped away by a diving Vicario early in the second half.
Just as nerves started to build City scored in the 51st minute.
Foden won a ball in midfield off Cristian Romero, crossed for Bernardo Silva who released De Bruyne and his square ball was tapped in from 3 yards out by the onrushing Haaland.
Spurs got physical after this – Romero collided with Ederson while following in Son’s shot – and Pep Guardiola was furious after De Bruyne was also left limping earlier after Papa Matar Sarr raked his achilles with a clumsy tackle.
Ederson was withdrawn soon afterwards with a suspected head injury with Stefan Ortega replacing him and Jeremy Doku replacing De Bruyne after 69 minutes.
And Ortega was called into action almost immediately to block a shot from Dejan Kulusevski who tested the sub keeper again with 10 minutes to go.
The tension levels rose as Spurs managed to get their chance with 4 minutes to go after Manuel Akanji was caught napping by Brennan Johnson and Son broke free with just Ortega to beat only to have his shot saved by the German’s outstretched leg – the German has saved 11 out of the 13 shots on target he has faced as a substitute keeper this term – including the last 11 in a row.
But just as the home side thought they could level the game Jeremy Doku won a 90th minute penalty after Pedro Porro brought him down.
Haaland stepped up and slammed it into the left side of the net with Vicario diving the other way and the City players celebrated like they knew they had one hand on the title.
The goal was Haaland’s 63rd goal in 65 Premier League matches – and he is 6 goals clear on 27 for the season in the race for the Golden Boot.
Spurs fans, quiet until this point, could finally break into song knowing that although their Champions League hopes were over their team had also potentially denied their North London rivals a chance to win their league too.
Vicario saved from Doku as City saw out the win comfortably.