An outstanding performance from Raheem Sterling helped Manchester City overcome a determined and well organised Huddersfield side and maintain their eight point lead at the top of the Premier League.
The Englishman nabbed the late winner against Feyenoord in the Champions League game during the week, and he was up to similar tricks here today, engineering both goals after his side found themselves a goal down at half time.
The last time these clubs met in 2000, both were in the Football League First Division, the previous guise of the second tier of English football now known as the Championship. Since then they have been on contrasting journeys, but both rides have been exhilarating in their own way. They both carried Premier League status into this meeting at the John Smith’s Stadium, but are at opposite ends of the football spectrum when it comes to resources.
Huddersfield rely on the guile and motivation absorbed from their manager David Wagner, whereas City have been rebuilt with a similar amount of guile, but considerably more funding.
The gap between the two sides was evident from the start, but as Wagner alluded to before the game, anything can happen when it’s eleven versus eleven for 90-minutes. For Huddersfield left back Scott Malone, everything happened too quickly. At the start of the first half he made a vital challenge on Sterling to halt the England star’s progress, but a similar amount of time into the second period he needlessly pulled the winger down to concede a penalty, which Sergio Aguero slotted away with minimal fuss.
That this was only the equaliser was testament to the first-half display from the home side. Laurent Depoitre caused problems for the visitors’ back line which included club captain Vincent Kompany in place of the injured John Stones. The two Belgians battled away on the occasions Huddersfield were able to find their lone striker, but in one of his side’s best chances, Depoitre found himself thwarted by Kompany’s outstretched boot in a one-on-one situation.
For Pep Guardiola’s team, David Silva had taken over the string pulling from Kevin De Bruyne, and the Spaniard created a couple of good chances for Aguero which were halted by good interventions first from centre back Christopher Schindler, and later by goalkeeper Jonas Lossl.
Sterling and Leroy Sane were busy down the flanks for City, creating chances for their team-mates with incisive balls from the byline. The best of these fell to De Bruyne and Fernandinho but neither could take them.
With just a minute left in the half Huddersfield’s own tricky winger, Tom Ince, sprinted away from the covering defence but saw his cross turned behind for a corner. Ince, ambling over to take the set piece himself, was able to swing in a wicked left footed cross which was met by Schindler and deflected into the goal off Nicolas Otamendi. The Terriers had created a couple of chances in the first half, with their other centre back, Zanka missing a good opportunity at the far post from Aaron Mooy’s cross, but this goal in the dying seconds of the first period was perfectly timed.
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If a team concedes just before half time, then the perfect response is to score straight after the restart. Sterling had just seen a penalty appeal waved away after Lossl went down at his feet to win the ball, but Malone’s ill-advised tug just seconds later was enough for Craig Pawson to confidently point to the spot.
The game then settled into a rhythm, and was probably too settled for Guardiola’s liking. His side probed away at Huddersfield’s resilient defensive line, but the closest they came to a goal was through Sane, whose well struck free kick bashed the crossbar just as sweetly as it had left his boot.
Wagner’s side set up a wall on their side of the Pennines in the form of an ever retreating 5-4-1 formation which compacted and tightened in order to prevent Silva and De Bruyne threading their passes through it. When the breach came it involved a large slice of luck as De Bruyne’s pass rebounded into the path of substitute Gabriel Jesus, whose shot bounced off Lossl, onto Sterling, and into the net.
The 22-year-old has had a knack of scoring important goals when the game is in the balance and points are at stake, and it’s the fifth goal of this kind he’s netted this season. Strikes against Everton, Bournemouth, West Bromwich Albion, and Feyenoord have been similarly important for his team during this campaign, and it could be said that both goals in this important victory against a stubborn, well organised side were down to him.
Mooy hit the side netting with a free kick in the game’s later stages, but even with five minutes of added time, Huddersfield had run themselves into the ground trying to stop a City side who appear unstoppable at this moment in time.
