"City" becomes sole leader, "Real" loses in the derby. Matches of the day
In the match where Abduqodir Husanov did not play, Manchester City scored 5 goals against Sunderland but conceded 3. Following this victory, the "Citizens" headed into the international break as the league leaders. Meanwhile, the Madrid derby turned into a refereeing controversy. The main events of Sunday evening, goals from the matches, and the situation in the tournament standings.
"City" became the sole leader, "Real" lost in the derby. Matches of the day
England: Haaland closed the gestalt, "MU" dropped points again
"Manchester City" – "Sunderland" 5:3
Fernandes, 9 (1:0). Brobbey, 12 (1:1). Cherki, 29 (2:1). Brobbey, 33 (2:2). Semenyo, 43 (3:2). Semenyo, 57 (4:2). Brobbey, 59 (4:3). Haaland, 81 (5:3)
"Manchester City": Donnarumma, Rúben Dias, Guéhi, Gvardiol, Matheus Nunes, Anderson, Fernandes, Cherki (O'Reilly, 85), Semenyo, Ndiaye (Doku, 75), Haaland
"Sunderland": Ruffs, Danso, Ballard, Metali, Mukiele, Sadiki (Isidor, 68), Xhaka, Le Fée, Angulo (Fofana, 60), Menez (Hume, 79), Brobbey
Warning: Metali, 8
Enzo Maresca left Abdukodir Khusanov on the bench for the second consecutive match in the EPL (the Uzbek defender had started in the midweek League Cup match against Norwich), and the defensive line he trusted conceded three goals.
The match began with Enzo Fernandes's first goal for "Manchester City". In the Argentine midfielder's place, most players would have routinely crossed the ball to teammates from the free kick, but he decided to send the ball around the wall and into the goalkeeper's near corner.
However, "Sunderland" was not rattled by this beautiful strike and soon equalized through Le Fée's pass to Brobbey between the central defenders. After the middle of the half, the teams exchanged goals once more. The "Citizens'" intense pressing around the opponent's penalty area ended with Cherki's goal, while the "Black Cats" responded with Menez joining the attack and setting up Brobbey in front of an empty net.
But at the end of the first half, Enzo Maresca's men still went ahead. After Guéhi won the battle for the ball, Semenyo found the back of the net from a favorable position, and shortly after, Haaland could have decided the fate of the match, but missed the empty net.
And in stoppage time, Donnarumma saved his team from an inevitable goal.
In the second half, Semenyo completed his brace, but the contest did not end there, as the visitors' forward Brobbey responded to this goal as well. The Dutch footballer achieved a hat-trick following Angulo's pass. The visitors mounted strong pressure to equalize, regularly delivering the ball into the opponent's penalty area. In one of those situations, Donnarumma made a mistake on a cross, which ended with Rúben Dias clearing the ball off the goal line.