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We fight back to get a draw at home to the champions

Writer's picture: Philip Ian MurrayPhilip Ian Murray

After our lacklustre peformance and defeat to Plymouth in the FA Cup and Manchester City possibly turning the corner after their awful run with an 8-0 thrashing of Salford City, I was not optimistic about the result. However, we made a bright start as Wissa shot wide, had a shout for penalty rejected (never a pen) and he narrowly missed Mbeumo's cross. Then Ortega made a smart save low down to his left to keep out an effort from Mbeumo (almost identical to the goal he scored against Arsenal) and also did well to deny Janelt. City grew into the game and had a few chances, but it finished goalless at half-time. The first chance of the second half fell to the Bees after they won a free-kick that was practically a corner on the left-hand side. It was floated in by Jensen and met by Collins, but his glancing header dropped the wrong side of the far post. Savinho came closest five minutes into the second half when he sprinted from inside his own half, past three Brentford players, and arrowed a shot off the post. Mbeumo was next to try his luck, when Jensen fantastically brought down a lofted pass with a Cruyff turn, before passing to the Cameroon international - however, he blazed his shot over the bar. Haaland's header was the next effort of the game, before Foden raced clear and looked set to have an attempt on goal before more good defending from Roerslev and Collins. Another City chance came before the hour-mark when Savinho was played in before firing wide. The ball was in the back of the net on 65 minutes when Damsgaard struck from the edge of the area into the bottom corner, but the referee raised his flag, which was backed up by VAR, with the midfielder in an offside position earlier in the move. Before the result of the VAR check had even finished being read out, City were ahead. Phil Foden leapt to cushion a side-footed volley from de Bruyne's superb cross from the right. But we nearly equalised five minutes later, only for Ake to clear the ball off the line from Wissa's effort after Mbeumo had set up the chance by going around the City keeper. That miss looked to have proved costly when Foden scored his second in the 78th minute, reacting first to convert the rebound after Flekken had parried Savinho's strike, after Roerslev had lost the ball. We pulled one back in the 82nd minute when Wissa had space to shoot home from six yards out, a goal that was his 37th for the club in the top flight and one that took him above Toney as our top scorer in the PL. Even after we had got a goal back, City had chances to restore their two-goal advantage, but Savinho and Haaland had attempts saved while McAtee fired just wide. It was our inspired fight back that led to Lewis-Potter floating a gorgeous ball into the penalty area which was met by the head of captain Nørgaard, who headed home to rescue a point in a thrilling finish. We almost stole the victory in the 95th minute, only for Ake to head Mbeumo's curled effort off the goal line (although it was probably going wide).



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