Man City ran perfect momentum before the Real war

Gabriel Jesus is the hero of Man City today, when he was directly involved in all five goals of shooting the home team into the opponent’s net. Between the doubles in the first half and the first few minutes of the second half, the Brazilian striker also contributed an assist for Rodri to score in the 34th minute, when Watford had just glimmered hope of surprising with a goal to shorten the score only six minutes earlier.

Jesus is the first player in the Premier League to make poker, after Son Heung-min – the Tottenham striker who scored four goals against Southampton in September 2020. He is also only the fourth player in the past five years to be directly involved – assisting and/or scoring – in five of the home team’s goals in the same Premier League game. The previous three people to do this include Harry Kane, with twice (in 2017 – against Leicester) and then (2020 – Southampton), Mohamed Salah (2018 – Watford) and Jack Grealish (2020 – Liverpool).

The first poker shot of Jesus’ career in the Premier League helped Man City continues to be firmly at the top of the table with 80 points through 33 matches. The stars under coach Pep Guardiola so don’t have to worry about Liverpool – the second team in the group has 76 points and will have a Merseyside derby against Everton tomorrow 24/4.

Besides, Man City still preserves personnel and energy for the next Champions League semi-final first leg Real Madrid April 26th. Not long after Jesus raised the score to 5-1, Guardiola in turn withdrew two important links, namely attacking midfielder Kevin de Bruyne, midfielder Aymeric Laporte and defensive midfielder Rodri to keep three important links in place. This is before the great battle in the middle of next week. Thanks to the big gap plus Watford’s more or less frustrated, Man City also kicked a bit loose in the last 30 minutes, mainly avoiding collisions.

But Man City in fact kicked leisurely right from the start. To deal with the current busy schedule, Guardiola up to six main kick positions compared to Brighton win mid-week, and the freshness that Dias, Zinchenko, Fernandinho, Jesus, Sterling, Grealish brought to help Man City soon fly.

Right in the fourth minute, two of Man City’s six changes coordinated like practice kicks, bringing the opener to the table. Zinchenko received the ball from Cancelo’s right hanger, then stretched it across the penalty area to let Jesus loose, cushion with his right foot, knocking down Ben Foster. At the 23rd minute, Jesus was once again present at the right time to catch the cross from the right De Bruyne to head double the difference.

Watford There were also some chances in the first half of the first half, but it was not until the 28th minute that they found their way into the hosts’ goal, with the goal shortening the score to 2-1 from the defender’s tight, sinking shot. left Hassane Kamara. However, the joy and excitement of the visitors did not last long. After being in the penalty area at the first two goals, Jesus drifted to the right. And from a close, fierce dispute here, he stole the ball from Kamara, then crossed in front of the 16m50 area for Rodri from the second line to shoot a beautiful long shot down Foster, re-establishing a two-goal lead for Man City. .

In the second half, Jesus earned a penalty with an acceleration at 16m50, overtaking Kamara, forcing Foster into a foul, and then personally succeeded, making the score 4-1 in 49 minutes. Less than four minutes later. There, Jesus completed his first poker in the Premier League with a great smash with De Bruyne, then finished his right foot neatly, sealing the victory for Man City.

Statistics show that this match Man City held the ball up to 72% in the first half, and 74% of the whole match. The advantage of controlling the ball was once again the foundation for them to soon overwhelm the opponent, then save their stamina in the last 30 minutes of the game, when the advantage was too obvious.

Nhat Tao