Man City 2-1 Leeds: Ilkay Gundogan strikes twice but misses a penalty before late Rodrigo goal

Like large parts of the population, Leeds United sought solace in tradition on Saturday. Sam Allardyce, the manager appointed to save their season in four games, has now managed a dozen clubs in a long and colorful career with a rich history of saving teams from relegation. He’s had enough coronations.

Big Sam was once king for a pint of wine episode one day and undercover reporters robbed him of the job in England, but he’s mostly cast as a pretender, a tag that still irks him. “There is no one for me in football,” he said at his unveiling last week. ‘Don’t peep. Not Klopp. Not Arteta.’

The problem with Allardyce’s re-emergence in the Premier League at the age of 68 as the King’s return is that Manchester City are probably the deadliest renegades in English football history.

They don’t have a truck with tradition or with the establishment. They have dethroned Manchester United and Liverpool and this week they will also come for the royal family of Spanish football, as they run to the Bernabeu to try and take down Real Madrid.

But as enthusiastically as we patronize him, Allardyce shocked City at the Etihad. Pep Guardiola’s side beat Leeds for 95% of the game, but when they became momentarily complacent and Ilkay Gundogan tried to complete his hat-trick with a penalty, Leeds hit back.

The Citizens captain missed a late penalty with six minutes to play and was denied a first-ever senior hat-trick

Rodrigo struck just 58 seconds after the missed penalty, making things awkward for Man City late in the closing stages of the game

City, who made seven changes in their last game, were 2–0 up with six minutes remaining when Gundogan missed the penalty. A minute later, Leeds substitute Rodrigo reduced the score to 2-1 and suddenly Leeds, Big Sam and their fans smelled a miracle.

It didn’t quite happen, but the City players left the pitch shaking their heads and the Leeds players walked over to their fans who cheered and cheered as if they had just won the league.

City had dismantled Leeds until those last five minutes. Gundogan scored a brace, but they should have scored many more. The game was notable for the fact that Erling Haaland failed to score, although he could have easily scored a hat-trick.

The result left City four points clear at the top of the table and Leeds even closer to the bottom three with their dented goal difference. However, there was a feeling that part of their spirit has been restored.

This was a free hit for them. No one expected them to get anything out of this game and that’s exactly what happened. Their future will be decided in their last three games, at home to Newcastle, away to West Ham and at home to Spurs.

Leeds have now gone six games without a win and are only above the relegation zone on goal difference, but when the final whistle blew and the Leeds fans roared, it felt, in a modest way, like this was a building block.

Allardyce, who dropped goalkeeper Illan Meslier and replaced him with Joel Robles, had a lively presence on the sidelines. His first contribution, when the ball went out of play at the other end, was an energetic gesture to his team to get Weston McKennie to launch a long throw into the City box. The throw was headed without error. Allardyce spread his hands in disappointment.

City, of course, dominated possession, and although there was a break in Leeds’ tackles that were nonexistent in recent weeks, City played around them.

Visibly isolated down the middle throughout the first half, Patrick Bamford struggled to make an impression

Illan Meslier was dropped before the match at the Etihad in favor of Joel Robles – Sam Allardyce’s first big call in Leeds

Robles made his first appearance in the Premier League since a 3-1 defeat at Everton in 2017, conceding twice in the first half

The 68-year-old – who is now in charge of his ninth Premier League club – had said not even Pep Guardiola was ‘before him’

Gundogan’s two first-half goals came from outside the box, with his second try flashing Robles in goal at 27 m-nutes

Julian Alvarez skied a shot after a neat withdrawal from De Bruyne and Haaland was, uncharacteristically, thwarted when Robles blocked his shot after it was played through by a fine pass from Rico Lewis.

The chances started to come and before 20 minutes had passed City ran one of them in.

De Bruyne spread the ball wide to the right to Riyad Mahrez, Mahrez cut in and played a short pass to Gundogan and Gundogan stroked the ball past Robles into the corner of the net.

At half-time, City almost scored what would have been one of the goals of the season.

Gundogan played a breathtaking pass to De Bruyne with the outside of his right foot, De Bruyne volleyed it back into Haaland’s path and Haaland drilled it towards goal. It went inches wide.

A minute later, City went further ahead. Lewis ran to the Leeds defense and played the ball to Haaland.

Haaland danced past a few challenges and passed the ball to Mahrez, who was back in space on the right. Mahrez played the ball again in Gundogan. Gundogan swept it home.

Leeds had a rare opportunity when McKennie headed down from a corner and Ederson knocked the ball away and then the crowd were treated to a collector’s item: Haaland was played through on goal and as he formed to shoot he accidentally hit the ball with his left hand. foot, swung his right hand at it and missed and fell into a heap.

Haaland missed another golden opportunity 15 minutes after the break when he snatched a ball from Lewis with his back to goal, swerved in the blink of an eye and hooked a shot past Robles.

For a moment it looked like the ball would head in, but the ball kissed the outside of the post on its way to contact.

Erling Haaland had a bad day in front of goal and missed several chances, hitting the woodwork on a number of occasions

Guardiola was furious when Haaland handed the ball to Gundogan for a chance at a hat-trick, with the captain missing the penalty

Guardiola scolded the Norwegian striker for not taking the penalty after scoring eight times this season

The City captain has made more passes before the end of the game than any other player in the Premier League this season

Eight minutes before the end, Haaland wasted another chance. City won a penalty as Phil Foden was brought down by Pascal Struijk, but Haaland gave Gundogan the chance to complete his hat-trick rather than take the kick himself. Gundogan hit the post.

A minute later, Leeds dragged themselves back into the game. Junior Firpo won a towering header to nod the ball towards Rodrigo and he skipped Manuel Akanji’s feeble challenge and confidently slid the ball past Ederson. The Etihad was stunned into silence.

Now City were nervous. Suddenly they played keep-ball in the corner and let the clock run. Guardiola paced his technical room.

Allardyce sensed an opportunity, but it was too late. At the final whistle, he and Guardiola embraced. Two kings. Almost right for a day. But not completely.