Man City 1-1 Everton: Pep's side drop more points as Haaland misses penalty

ERLING HAALAND fluffed the chance to lift the gloom over Manchester City.

Match Report

The Norwegian forward saw his second-half penalty saved by Jordan Pickford – meaning the fallen champs dropped yet more points.

Pep Guardiola’s men have now won just one of their last 13 games in all competitions and even their normally deadly striker is misfiring.

The Etihad chief had ordered his players to spend Christmas night at the City Football Academy after training in a bid to halt the slide.

But there was more bad news ahead of kick-off with England pair Kyle Walker and Jack Grealish ruled out.

Even so, it looked like Pep’s decision was the wake up call his players needed after a disastrous couple of months.

They began in confident fashion with Phil Foden’s cross headed against the post by Josko Gvaradiol early on.

Inside the first quarter hour, they were ahead as Bernardo Silva latched onto a pass from Jeremy Doku and squeezed his shot over Jordan Pickford – via a deflection off Jarrad Branthwaite.

Everton have kept clean sheets against Arsenal and Chelsea in recent weeks – but even in their current form City were finding ways through.

Silva wasted a golden chance to make it two as he screwed a shot wide after great build up play from Foden and Haaland.

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And they were made to pay moments later as Manuel Akanji made a hash of clearing Aboulaye Doucoure’s shot.

It fell to Iliman Ndiaye at the back post and the Senegalese took a shot before steering a rising shot pas Stefan Ortega and into the corner.

The confidence which was coming back to City suddenly drained out of them and they looked anxious in the remainder of the first half.

After the break they were on the front foot again with Mateo Kovacic volleying wide and Savinho also going close.

The Brazilian winger won his team a penalty when he went down under a challenge from Vitaly Mykolenko soon afterwards.

It was a clear penalty but maybe the delay which followed unsettled Haaland as his penalty was tame and comfortably saved by Pickford.

Even though the Norwegian headed in the rebound, he was flagged offside - and a golden chance had been wasted.

Haaland has been suffering along with his team-mates in recent weeks – and has just four goals in the last dozen games. A real drought by his standards.

City were jittery again and breathed a sigh of relief when Doucoure’s goalbound effort was deflected past his own post by Rico Lewis.

In the final few minutes Orel Mangala’s shot took a nick off Akanji and dropped just wide of the post – the way things have been going it would have been no surprise if it had dropped in.

Match Events

0' The match is about to start!

3' OFF THE POST! Josko Gvardiol

9' Doku is taken down

12' Haaland's shot stooped by defender

14' Silva squeezes it into the far post!! Man City 1-0 Everton

21' Orel Mangala shot from outside the box is close

23' Assisted by Phil Foden with a cross following a corner

26' Great passing from Foden but Haaland doesn't take that chance

32' Bernardo shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right

36' They have equalized VS MAN CITY! Beautiful finishi NDIAYE!! Man City 1-1 Everton

48' Haaland header from the right side of the six yard box is close, but misses it

53' Penalty Missed! (Haaland)

55' Pickford does a funny face towards Haaland before the penalty

65' Match Event for Man City vs Everton

67' Savinho's shot wide out

69' EVERTON almost made it 2-1!

75' DOKU IS TAKEN OFF,DE BRUYNE IS ON!

78' Haaland can't give enough support to teammate

83' EVERTON ALMOST takes the lead!

85' Subs: Jahmai Simpson-Pusey and Ilkay Gundogan replace Ake and Mateo Kovacic

Line-ups

Man City XI: Stefan Ortega, Kovacic, Ake, Bernardo, Akanji, Haaland, Foden, Jérémy Doku, Josko Gvardiol, Rico Lewis, Savinho

Subs: Carson, Gundogan, De Bruyne, James McAtee, Divin Mubama, Nico O'Reilly, Max Alleyne, Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, Spike Brits

Everton XI: Coleman, Gueye, Pickford, Doucoure, Tarkowski, Calvert-Lewin, Mangala, Jack Harrison, Vitaliy Mykolenko, Iliman Ndiaye, Jarrad Branthwaite

Subs: Keane, João Virgínia, Beto, Jesper Lindstrøm, Armando Broja, Nathan Patterson, Jake O'Brien, Chermiti, Harrison Armstrong