‘Eight-goal blitz’ Man City-Chelsea draw 4-4…Holland 2G 1AS→Palmer Theater PK

Manchester City and Chelsea played out a hard-fought, eight-goal thriller that ended in a draw.

Manchester City battled Chelsea to a 4-4 draw in the 12th round of the 2023/24 Premier League season at Stamford Bridge in London, England, on Wednesday (Aug. 13).

With a point, City (28 points) remained atop the league table, but only one point separated them from second-place Liverpool (27 points) and third-place Arsenal (27 points). Chelsea (16 points), on the other hand, picked up a point against league favorites City to move into 10th place in the league.

The home team lined up in a 4-2-3-1. With Robert Sanchez in goal, Marc Cucurella, Thiago Silva, Axel Disassi, and Leicester James formed the back four. Enso Fernandez and Moises Caicedo lined up in the back three, with Raheem Sterling, Conor Gallagher, and Cole Palmer in the back two. Up front, Nicola Jackson was in goal for City.

The visitors lined up in a 3-2-4-1. Ederson got the goalkeeping gloves, while Josuco Gvardiol, Jubeng Dias, and Kyle Walker formed the back three. Manuel Akanji and Rodri formed the back three, with Jeremy Dockoo, Bernardo Silva, Julian Alvarez, and Phil Foden supporting frontline striker Elling Holland.

Chelsea didn’t back down against the league leaders in the first half, pressuring them from the start, but conceded an early goal. In the 22nd minute of a City attack, Cucurella grabbed and dragged Holland by the shirt to prevent him from cutting in to finish a cross in front of goal, and the referee awarded a penalty after video assistant referee (VAR) review. Holland stepped up to take the spot-kick and finished neatly to give his team the lead.

But Chelsea didn’t let City’s goal stop them. In the 28th minute, James found the back of the City net with a sharp finish off a free kick from Enzo. In the 29th minute, Thiago Silva headed home the ball from a corner kick to equalize.

Chelsea turned the game around. In the 37th minute, Palmer delivered a pinpoint pass to James, who penetrated the right side of the penalty box and sent a low, quick cross to Sterling in the center of the box. Ederson and the defense lost track of the ball and Sterling, in front of the goal, slid it in for the equalizer.

City didn’t go down without a fight. On a corner kick in first-half stoppage time, the ball was played to Bernardo Silva in the left corner of the penalty area, not in the box, and Silva targeted the heads of the players in front of him with a pinpoint kick.

Akanji, who was centrally positioned, rose high to beat the Chelsea defenders and head it into the corner beyond Sanchez’s reach to level the game.

With the score tied at 2-2 at the break, the teams continued to battle for goals in the second half. It was City who came out on fire again. Two minutes into the second half, on the counter-attack, Foden played a pinpoint pass to Bernardo as he cut back through the defense, and his cross found the legs of a diving Holland in front of the goal, where it was headed straight into the Chelsea net. VAR then reviewed the goal to see if Holland had been handballed, but the goal stood. 카지노사이트

Down a man, Chelsea tried to get back into the game. In the fifth minute of stoppage time, a counter-attack that began with a long pass from Gallagher saw Sterling break through on the left side of the penalty box and send a cross in front of goal that Dias threw himself to block. From the resulting rebound, Gallagher tried to slide the ball home again, but Dias was up to the challenge and cleared the ball out of the box.

Dias was at it again 10 minutes into the second half, making a neat sliding tackle to deny a Chelsea counter-attack that found space in the back of the defense after a pass from James.

However, Chelsea continued to press forward. In the 15th minute, Palmer dribbled through four defenders before finding himself in the center of the City box. Unfortunately, he was unable to put enough power into his shot and was easily saved by Ederson.

In the 22nd minute of the second half, the game was back to even. A mid-range shot from Gallagher in front of the penalty box arc was saved by Ederson, and the ball was played out to Jackson in the box. Jackson calmly slotted the ball into the corner with his right foot for the third tie of the match.

Chelsea pushed for an equalizer. In the 30th minute, Sterling stole the ball away from his man and set up Gusto for a one-on-one opportunity, but Gusto’s shot sailed over the bar.

City had no intention of letting the game slip away. In the 41st minute, Matteo Kovacic’s shot bounced off the defense and fell in front of the penalty box arc, allowing Rodri to connect with a powerful mid-range shot that found the right corner of the Chelsea goal to give City the lead again.

Chelsea, whose colors were beginning to fade, had a chance to equalize after a defensive error by Dias. In second-half stoppage time, Sterling’s cross found Armando Broja, and the referee immediately pointed to the spot as Diaz’s tackle to stop Broja’s shot tripped his leg in the box. Palmer stepped up to the spot and slotted the ball into the top left corner. In the end, the two teams played out a 4-4 draw after an eight-goal thriller.

The teams had similar chances in the match, with City taking 15 shots and Chelsea 17, and almost identical expected goals scored ratios of 2.90 for City and 2.96 for Chelsea. In the end, neither team had much to smile about as the game ended in a draw.

City had to be content with their lead. Chelsea had the benefit of having scored four goals in two games in a row, following their win over Tottenham on July 7.