Manuel Akanji has revealed how Manchester City planned to attack Brighton with a long ball over the top to Erling Haaland, which led to the opening goal, after noticing a weakness in their backline.
City immediately bounced back to winning ways on Saturday following last weekend's defeat at Liverpool with a comfortable 3-1 victory over Brighton. Unsurprisingly, it was Haaland who got City ahead with a first-half brace before Kevin De Bruyne secured the points late on with a stunning strike.
Haaland's first goal wasn't typical of the Blues' normal patient build-up as, just like what happened to them at Anfield, Ederson booted the ball forward for the Norwegian to run onto, bounce a defender to the ground and then slot over the line. Akanji has revealed the preparation that went into the goal.
“We saw it in the video that they play one v one at the back," the Swiss said. "So everybody knows that it is never easy to go one v one against Erling Haaland.
"We trained for that and Eddy played a perfect ball to Erling and he was able to run through and score the goal. It is something we have got to use when we have a player and a goalkeeper like this.
“I think the most important thing is that we got the three points. It wasn’t an easy game, but I think we deserved to win. There are some things that we could have done better, but Brighton did well. As a team, they came here and tried to play, especially in the second half.
"In the end, we had our chances, we scored three goals and that was important. Maybe we could have done better with the goal that we conceded, but the three points are what matters.”