Manchester City dealt with his shocking exit from the Champions League semi-final by placing his hand on the English Premier League title, when he honored his guest, Newcastle United, with five clean points on Sunday, in the thirty-sixth stage.
Raheem Sterling (19,90 +3), Spain’s Aymeric Laporte (38), Spain’s Rodri (61) and substitute Phil Foden (90 + 1) scored the goals.
Three days after losing against its Spanish host Real Madrid 1-3 after extending the second leg of the semi-finals of the prestigious continental competition, after he was close to reaching the second final in a row, with a 4-3 lead in the first leg and 1-0 until the 90th minute, the Spanish coach Pepe’s men renewed Guardiola, the date with victories and three points away from their only competitor for the title, Liverpool.
Manchester City took advantage of Liverpool’s 1-1 stumble against its guest, Tottenham, on Saturday, at the opening stage, and achieved its fourth consecutive victory, the 27th this season, raising its score to 86 points, compared to 83 for Liverpool, three games before the end of the season.
Manchester City will visit Wolverhampton, on Wednesday, in a postponed match from the thirty-third stage, and then against West Ham United, next Sunday, in the penultimate stage, before ending the season at home against Aston Villa.
On the other hand, Liverpool will play its host Aston Villa, on Tuesday, in a postponed match from the 33rd stage, and then against Southampton next Tuesday in the penultimate stage, and concludes the season at home against Wolverhampton.
Manchester City, in the absence of its Portuguese stars Bernardo Silva and Algerian Riyad Mahrez, whom Guardiola decided to rest, pressed strongly from the beginning, and Portuguese defender Joao Cancelo missed the opportunity to open the scoring when he received a cross from Belgian Kevin De Bruyne, who followed it with his right right next to the left post (16).
Cancelo substituted after three minutes, when he headed the ball to Sterling, who was unattended, and he followed it in turn with a close-range throw into the empty goal (19).
Kancelo almost did it with a powerful shot from close range, which was pushed away by Slovak international goalkeeper Martin Dubravka to a corner that did not bear fruit (25).
City strengthened its lead with a second goal when German Ilkay Gundogan hit a “flying” ball from the edge of the area that bounced off Dubravka and prepared in front of the Portuguese Robin Diach, and he shot it from close range and bounced from the goalkeeper’s hand again to find Laporte, so he followed it into the empty goal (38).
And Rodri reinforced the third goal when he took advantage of a corner kick that de Bruyne followed with his head and put it to the right of Dubravka (61).
Substitute Foden added the fourth goal when he took advantage of a shot by Ukrainian Zinchenko and followed it from close range (90 + 1), before Sterling concluded the festival with the fifth goal with a right-footed shot from inside the area (90 + 3).