Man City Win Hard: Pep Plots For Champions League Ticket, Rashford Can’t Save Aston Villa

Man City‘s hard-fought victory over Aston Villa also reflects the unpredictability of the race for Champions League tickets in the Premier League this season.

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3 goals in the match

Man City’s Thrilling Win and Guardiola’s Caution

Recently, coach Pep Guardiola has often been criticized for his tactics, when he fielded a team that favored ball control with a large number of midfielders.

The 2-1 win over Aston Villa was no exception. In this important encounter in the race for a Champions League ticket, Pep directed striker Omar Marmoush to often drift to the wing, while the duo Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne played as “false 9s”. Meanwhile, wingers like Jeremy Doku, Jack Grealish, and Savinho were ignored on the bench.

Man City Wins, But Still Has Many Concerns

The Spanish coach was extremely cautious after many changes in the squad and achievements. The problem is that the individuals he chose are no longer at their peak like in previous seasons, causing Man City’s playing style to be judged as lacking in innovation. Doubts about Pep came from the match against Everton a few days ago, when Man City won thanks to 2 goals at the end of the match.

In fact, the goals against Aston Villa all came from wing attacks. Notably, Doku was also the author of the assist that led to the decisive goal after coming on as a substitute.

Overall, the match result also partly reflects the situation of the race for a ticket to the Champions League, when the gap between the 3rd place team (Man City) and the 7th place team (Aston Villa) is only 4 points with only 5 rounds left in the Premier League.

One notable detail is that Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez started to show signs of wasting time very early. That further shows how cautious the teams are in each direct confrontation.

Man City temporarily climbed to 3rd place, but the fragile gap with the chasing group shows that everything is still very unpredictable in the final rounds. Therefore, Guardiola’s caution is not too surprising.

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Rashford Fails to Save Aston Villa

In the important match, coach Unai Emery continued to leave out Ollie Watkins to give Marcus Rashford a chance to start. This was surprising because just a few days before, Watkins had just shone with a goal in the 4-1 victory over Newcastle.

The 29-year-old striker has scored 15 goals in the Premier League this season, and has publicly expressed his dissatisfaction at not being able to start in important matches. However, Rashford proved that coach Emery’s trust in him was completely justified.

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Rashford Played Well Against Man City

In addition to scoring from the penalty spot, the loan signing from MU often caused trouble for Man City’s defense with his fast playing style and reasonable off-the-ball movements.

From the 3-2 win over PSG in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals to the encounter with Man City, Rashford left a strong impression.

However, Emery’s emphasis on the 27-year-old striker, in the context that Aston Villa is considering buying him outright, could cause the relationship with Watkins to deteriorate.

Obviously, this is not good for the team because they need to fight together for a ticket to the Champions League, instead of getting into trouble related to who to choose and who to leave.

The Problem That Gives Emery a Headache

Another problem that gives Emery a headache is goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez. From the beginning of the match, when Villa were in a good position, Martinez “lost points” with a poor save from Bernardo Silva’s shot that led to the opening goal. This situation is reminiscent of a similar loss in the match against PSG a week ago.

After the loss, Martinez lost his composure, continuously making inaccurate kicks. The 2022 World Cup champion even almost caused Aston Villa to concede another goal when he kicked the ball straight to Kevin De Bruyne’s feet, creating conditions for Man City to organize a dangerous counterattack.

In general, the failure to maintain stability in big matches has caused Martinez in particular and Aston Villa to face many doubts.

Now, the ambition to win a ticket to the Champions League for the second consecutive season of the Villa Park team also faces a big challenge.