London: Erling Haaland scored the only goal as Manchester City boosted their hopes of a top-four finish with a 1-0 away win over Tottenham Hotspur on Thursday (IST).
Sunday’s loss to Liverpool left last season’s Premier League champions 20 points adrift of the leaders, and Chelsea’s 4-0 win over Southampton on Tuesday saw City drop out of the top four.
But Pep Guardiola’s side produced a dominant first-half performance in north London, which was rewarded when Haaland tapped home on his return from injury for his 20th Premier League goal of the season.
That made him just the second player to reach that tally in each of his first three campaigns in the competition, after Ruud van Nistelrooy did so for Manchester United between 2001/02 and 2003/04, Premier League reports.
Haaland even thought he’d put the icing on the cake in the dying moments after stroking past Guglielmo Vicario but he instead saw the strike ruled out for handball.
City could have put the game out of sight in the first half but were instead forced to work hard for a clean sheet and the three points as the hosts improved after the break.
The hard-fought win move City back into the top four of the Premier League with 11 games remaining while Spurs stay 13th in the table with 33 point.
“We were better in the first and they were better in the second. 1-0, 2-0, 3-0 that should have happened because of the chances. In the second half we suffer but we should have closed it in the first. But for Champions League qualification, it was an incredibly good result for us,” Guardiola said.
After the loss, Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou said, “First half we had to hang in there, created a couple of chances, but we were wasteful with the ball. In the second half, we dominated in all areas but missed a goal to get something out of the game. We always knew we would finish strong, we always do, but in the first half we turned the ball over too many times, if you do that against City, you allow them to get into a rhythm.”
(IANS)
