Manchester City and Liverpool drew 2-2 at the Ethiad Stadium and the Citizens maintained the lead, this Sunday at the conclusion of matchday 32 of the English championship.
The ‘Citizens’ dominated the first half and went ahead twice, first after a shot by Kevin de Bruyne (5) and again thanks to a goal by Gabriel Jesús (36). Before, the ‘Reds’ had tied thanks to a goal from Diogo Jota (13).
In the second half, Liverpool started better and Sadio Mané quickly put the tables on the scoreboard (46).
After the Senegalese goal, City regained control but without being as dominant as in the first 45 minutes and giving the ‘Reds’ options. A goal disallowed for offside by Raheem Sterling could have given the locals the lead again (63).
Although both teams had chances to take all three points, the game ended in a draw that favors City, as they maintain a one-point lead and depend solely on their results to lift the title.
In Sunday’s other games, West Ham stumbled 2-0 at Brentford to drop valuable points in their Champions League run, bottom side Norwich beat Burnley 2-0 and Leicester beat Crystal Palace 2-1.
The ‘Hammers’, in sixth position, enjoyed an opportunity to continue to pressure Arsenal (5th) and take distances from Manchester United (7th), after both teams lost on Saturday.
However, Brentford (13th) repeated last week’s surprise, when they defeated Chelsea (3rd) 4-1, and with goals from Frenchman Bryan Mbeumo (48) and Englishman Ivan Toney (64) they beat West Ham.
No less surprising was the victory of the bottom Norwich (20th) against Burnley (18th) in one of the last opportunities for both teams to cling to the dream of salvation. The ‘Canaries’ only have five wins this season and they hadn’t won a game since January 21 (3-0 against Watford).
Pierre Lees Melou soon opened the scoring (9), which would not budge until Finn Temmu Pukki scored in the final moments (86) to guarantee three essential points against a direct rival in the fight for permanence.
In a duel in the middle of the standings, Leicester (9th) beat Crystal Palace (10th) 2-1. The Foxes are going through an irregular season, and after having been twice at the gates of the ‘Top 4’, they face this end of the season with no other objective than to climb as high as possible in the classification.
The opposite feeling is that of Patrick Vieira’s Crystal Palace, who is comfortable away from relegation and who will play the FA Cup semi-finals in a week against Chelsea.
However this time it was the hosts who had something to celebrate, after Ademola Lookman (39) and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (45) took a comfortable lead in the closing minutes of the first half. Wilfred Zaha scored (65) but it was insufficient to score.
— Results of the matches of the 32nd day of the English football championship, and classification table:
– Friday:
Newcastle-Wolverhampton 1-0
– Saturday:
Everton-Manchester United 1-0
Southampton–Chelsea 0 – 6
Watford-Leeds 0-3
Arsenal-Brighton 1-2
Aston Villa-Tottenham 0-4
– Sunday:
Brentford-West Ham 2-0
Leicester-Crystal Palace 2-1
Norwich City 2-0 Burnley
Manchester City-Liverpool 2-2
Classification: Pts JGEP GF GC Dif
1. Manchester City 74 31 23 5 3 72 20 52
2. Liverpool 73 31 22 7 2 79 22 57
3.Chelsea 62 30 18 8 4 64 23 41
4. Tottenham 57 31 18 3 10 56 37 19
5. Armory 54 30 17 3 10 45 36 9
6. West Ham 51 32 15 6 11 51 42 9
7. Manchester United 51 31 14 9 8 49 42 7
8. Wolverhampton 49 32 15 4 13 33 28 5
9. Leicester 40 29 11 7 11 45 48 -3
10. Crystal Palace 37 31 8 13 10 43 40 3
11. Brighton 37 31 8 13 10 28 37 -9
12. Aston Villa 36 31 11 3 17 42 46 -4
13.Brentford 36 32 10 6 16 39 48 -9
14. Southampton 36 31 8 12 11 37 52 -15
15.Newcastle 34 31 8 10 13 34 54 -20
16. Leeds 33 32 8 9 15 38 68 -30
17. Everton 28 30 8 4 18 33 52 -19
18. Burnley 24 30 4 12 14 25 44 -19
19. Watford 22 31 6 4 21 29 60 -31
20. Norwich City 21 31 5 6 20 20 63 -43
