After drawing 1-1 against Nottingham Forest on Saturday, Manchester City suffered a blow in the Premier League championship battle.
Chris Wood’s goal with six minutes left tied the game after Bernardo Silva’s first-half goal seemed to be enough for City to win.
Erling Haaland will regret squandering two significant opportunities in the second half as City fell to a shocking defeat.
Pep Guardiola’s team wasted the opportunity to overtake league leaders Arsenal, who earlier on Saturday secured a last-second win against Aston Villa.
The reigning champions are still in second position, two points behind of Arsenal, who have a game remaining.
Despite playing one of our greatest games, we lost two points, Guardiola told the BBC. “We need to exert greater force. There are still a lot of games to be played, as we are aware “It’s football; we had fantastic opportunities. We need a victory. We made every effort. You must complete it. There were just too many obvious opportunities to score.”
After falling behind the Londoners for the most of the season, City defeated Arsenal on Wednesday at the Emirates Stadium to retake the lead in the rankings.
The only drawback to an excellent first half performance by City was that they were unable to score more than once to make their dominance count against Forest, who they defeated 6-0 in the rematch earlier in the season.
Throughout his amazing first season in England, Haaland had been targeting a 33rd goal in all competitions. He had to wait for his chance, but his impatience ultimately lost City all three points.
As his own shot rebounded against the crossbar, the Norwegian seemed destined to score, but he slid beneath the rebound attempt and sent the ball into the seats.
Wood’s first goal for Forest since being loaned from Newcastle United couldn’t have come at a better moment, giving his team a crucial point in their battle to remain in the Premier League and undermining City’s chances of winning the league.
Since losing to Leeds United in April 2021, City hasn’t defeated a newly-promoted team in the Premier League; before to Saturday’s tie, they had won nine straight such contests.
According to Forest coach Steve Cooper, Manchester City is the finest team in the world. “They are enthralling to see and research. There was no need for City to feel bad about having the ball so much. “I owe a lot of thanks to the players for adhering to the strategy.”
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