(AFP) - Manchester City's Norwegian striker Erling Haaland returned after missing his team's last two matches, scoring the winning goal 2-1 for his team in the last breath against Fulham, to give him three valuable points in his struggle with Arsenal for the title in the fifteenth stage of the England Football Championship . foot saturday.
City rose to the lead temporarily with 32 points, one point ahead of Arsenal, who are facing a difficult test on Sunday against their neighbor Chelsea.
Haaland started the match on the benches of the reserve players, so the brilliant Argentine Julian Alvares replaced him in the continent's last match for City, by scoring a goal and passing two decisive balls in the victory over Seville, Spain, 3-1, in the last sixth round of the Champions League.
Overall, the City coach made eight substitutions compared to the match against Sevilla.
After two unsuccessful attempts by Portuguese Bernardo Silva (3) and Belgian playmaker Kevin De Bruyne (9), Alvares opened the scoring after a front ball from German Ilkay Gundogan hit it from a narrow angle at the top of the net (17). Then the referee ruled out a goal by defender John Stones for offside.
But things got complicated for City after the expulsion of his Portuguese international, Joao Cancelo, after a joint ball with Fulham striker Harry Wilson alone in the goal, so that the referee awarded a penalty kick also to the guests, which Brazilian Andreas Pereira successfully set out against his compatriot Ederson (26).
City completed the match with ten players and found it difficult to penetrate the defenses of Fulham, who returned this season to the ranks of elite clubs, and who was absent in this match, its Serbian scorer Alexander Mitrovic, who scored 9 goals, due to injury.
Halland entered in the 64th minute instead of Alvares and succeeded in scoring a goal with a header after a perfect pass from De Bruyne, one of the stars of the match, but the referee did not count him for offside (74).
And in stoppage time, De Bruyne penetrated into the area, where he was obstructed by a Fulham defender, and the referee did not hesitate to award a penalty kick that Haaland set out to the right of the goalkeeper (90 + 5), to give his team a difficult and expensive victory.
Haaland raised his tally to the top of the scorer standings to 18 goals this season. It is also Haaland's 23rd goal in 16 games in various competitions since his move to City from Borussia Dortmund.
"I was a bit nervous before taking the penalty kick, but in the end I succeeded in translating it into a goal," Haaland said.
He added, "Playing with ten players against 11 over 70 minutes is not easy. The way we played with the numerical shortage, I don't think any team can do that."
He concluded, "I was absent for a week and now I'm back and I'm happy to give my team three very important points."
It is noteworthy that Haaland will be one of the most prominent absentees from the World Cup in Qatar this month, due to his country's failure to qualify.
Leeds United turned 3-1 behind to beat Bournemouth 4-3 in a crazy match.
Wolverhampton, who officially announced today its contract with Spanish coach Julen Lopetegui to supervise him, fell at home to Brighton 2-3.
On the other hand, last-placed Nottingham Forest snatched a 2-2 draw at home against Brentford in the last gasp.
Everton fell at home to Leicester City with two clean goals scored by Belgian playmaker Yuri Tielemans in the first minute of stoppage time in the first half with a pass from James Madison, before Harvey Barnes added the second four minutes before the end of the match with a new pass from Madison.
Madison, in particular, scored points in his quest to be in the England national team participating in the World Cup in Qatar later this month.
Leicester City, the league champion in 2016, moved out of the relegation zone thanks to this victory, to advance to the thirteenth place with 14 points.
Leicester had made a bad start at the start of the season, but its coach, Brandon Rogers, succeeded in rebalancing it in recent times.
Sunday highlights Tottenham's match with Liverpool.