Haaland misses the penalty to make it 2-1. At the last minute he also suffered a deadly counterattack which was only thwarted by the intervention of Akanji who opposed Harrison's shot
Manchester City’s Spanish manager Pep Guardiola reacts during the UEFA Champions League quarter-final second-leg Football match between Manchester City and Real Madrid, at the Etihad Stadium, in Manchester, north-west England, on April 17, 2024. (Photo by Darren Staples / AFP)
Guardiola's City don't even win against Everton, fresh from the transfer of ownership to the Friedkins, at the Etihad Stadium. First he took the lead with Bernardo Silva. But, in accordance with Murphy's law, after 20 minutes he conceded the equalizer from Ndiaye.
Not to mention the penalty saved by Pickford (it's more Haaland than the mistake). City also risks losing it because during the last minute of the game they suffer a deadly counterattack which was only thwarted by the intervention of Akanji who opposed Harrison's shot. “A four against two counterattack. Four against two!“, underlines the Guardian.
Read also: Haaland misses the penalty to make it 2-1 in City-Everton – VIDEO
“The situation is getting stranger and stranger. City had chances, but Everton could also have stolen them on the counterattack. Everton, who have avoided defeat against Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and City in the last three weeks“.
The Telegraph closes the live coverage of the match like this: “Just one win in 13 games for Manchester City, while Everton take another valuable point against one of the Premier League's big six teams“.
Guardiola has transformed the Premier League into Barcelona. The last holdout is Dyche: «Football today is like children's games»
Pep Guardiola lives with his Manchester City a crisis of unprecedented results. Yet, in an article from a few hours ago, The Telegraph decides to analyze its merits on a generic level. His influences, the appeal his innovations have had in global football. The essential point of the English newspaper's thesis concerns the number of goals scored in Premier League, in enormous growth (but isn't it also because there are the best players there? Ed.) compared to the years in which the manager in vogue was Mourinho or whoever. Below is what he writes The Telegraph about it:
Premier League matches average over three goals per match. Even clean sheets (the teams that finish without conceding a goal, ed.) are in decline: last season's 157 from 380 games is the lowest total since the start of the Premier League and 50 fewer than the previous season.
All roads lead to Pep Guardiola when looking for an explanation. The Catalan may be in the midst of his first professional crisis at Manchester City, but looking at the current Premier League he can be in no doubt that he is the architect of the way football is played today. What was once described as the “Barcelonaisation” of the sport has permeated every level, with lower-league coaches as devoted to the idea of goalkeepers with “two left feet” making six-metre passes as Tottenham Hotspur's Ange Postecoglou .[…]
Fewer managers praise the merits of a team set up with two lines of four, and it seems that fans, who pay more than ever for tickets, are less tolerant of teams in which the full-backs do not regularly overlap their full-backs. Everton's Sean Dyche is somewhat of an anomaly in this year's Premier League, as his team excels at maintaining clean sheets – they have recorded seven in their last ten Premier League games – but notoriously struggle to score. Dyche recognizes how the game has evolved and knows the qualities that managers look for to improve productivity in attacking areas, but he has long argued that it is those with the most economic resources who can afford the greatest spirit of adventure. […]”
In the argument, the newspaper reports the Everton manager's declarations on the point:
«Defending has become more difficult. If you touch someone now, they fall. The old days when you could be decisive with a striker no longer exist. This definitely plays a role. Someone told me that our match against Chelsea [domenica] it felt like an old school defense game. I replied, “No, this is the new school. There were no hard tackles nor did anyone physically stop. It was about blocking passing lines and working as a collective. You can't be physical anymore. Sunday was like an under 10s game and there were 20 fouls called against us. Football is going in this direction and everyone seems to love it.”
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