Tag: Huddersfield

Manchester City has closed the gap on Liverpool at the top of the Premier League table back to four points courtesy of a 3-0 win over Huddersfield Town at the John Smith’s Stadium on Sunday night.

Danilo gave the champions the lead in the first half, but Huddersfield held their own for much of the opening 45 minutes and it was not until the second half that City showed something close to their best.

Two goals in as many minutes from Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane took the game away from the hosts, though, as Man City responded to Liverpool’s victory over Crystal Palace yesterday with a comfortable triumph of their own.

Pep Guardiola’s side has now scored 24 goals in five successive wins so far this calendar year, whereas Huddersfield fell to a 16th league defeat of the season in what was their first outing since parting company with manager David Wagner.

Caretaker Huddersfield boss Mark Hudson made six changes to his side and would have been content with his side’s first-half display, despite never really testing Ederson in the Man City goal.

The visitors did make an ominous start to the game, though, and Sergio Aguero skewed one effort off target after only three minutes as City looked for an early opener.

Huddersfield’s main problem all season has been putting the ball in the back of the net, and it was a similar story again this Sunday night with Adama Diakhaby squandering their first half-chance when he directed a stooping header wide.

City should have had a penalty after 13 minutes when Terence Kongolo clattered in to Sterling inside the box, but despite looking like a stone-waller referee Andre Marriner did not point to the spot.

Guardiola’s side did take the lead just five minutes later, though, as Danilo’s long-range strike took a big deflection off Christopher Schindler which sent it flying past a helpless Jonas Lossl.

It was City’s 100th goal across all competitions and Fernandinho almost provided number 101 with an unmarked header from a corner moments later, but City uncharacteristically failed to push on for more goals in an under-par first-half display.

Elias Kachunga forced a routine stop from Ederson as Huddersfield grew into the game, and Guardiola was visibly annoyed by the lack of intensity in his side’s performance.

Ilkay Gundogan fired a couple of shots off target towards the end of the first half, but it was not until after the interval that they were able to take the game out of Huddersfield’s reach with a quickfire double.