Match Report: Brighton 1-1 Manchester City (Premier League)

Manchester City marked their recent title win with an entertaining draw with Brighton & Hove Albion at the AMEX Stadium on Wednesday evening.

Pep Guardiola named a very strong side on the night with Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva all starting, despite the absences of Ruben Dias, Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake, Aymeric Laporte and Jack Grealish.

The game started open ended with Haaland heading over from a picturesque Phil Foden cross which the Norwegian should have really done better with.

Danny Welbeck then fired against the woodwork in what quickly became an end to end affair.

City did then take the lead, as Haaland ploughed forward and picked out Foden who fired past the despairing Brighton backline.

Kaoru Mitoma did have the ball in the back of the net but the Japanese winger clearly touched the ball with his hand before it crossed the line, so the goal was chalked off.

Brighton did find their equaliser through an Enciso wonder strike from distance after the midfielder let fire from outside the box into the top corner.

The Seagulls thought that they had taken the lead through Welbeck, but the striker was correctly adjudged to have been offside for his side’s second disallowed goal of the evening.

City battled back but could not find another goal as the sides went into the break level following a thoroughly enjoyable half of football.

In the second half, Guardiola made his first change, taking off goalscorer Foden for Cole Palmer before shortly after that bringing on Julian Alvarez for Kevin De Bruyne.

Mitoma went close again but Stefan Ortega in the City goal made himself big and denied the attacker with a brave save.

Brighton continued to threaten time after time but they just could not find the killer touch.

City thought they could however as Haaland headed in what seemed to be the winner but the goal was disallowed following a VAR check.

It was adjudged that the Norwegian pulled on the defender’s shirt to get in front and score.

Guardiola then was shown a yellow card for complaining about the decision to deny Haaland his goal.

In the aftermath of the controversial decision, Sergio Gomez and Kalvin Phillips were brought onto the field for John Stones and Bernardo Silva.

The sides played out the entertaining draw, meaning Brighton qualified for the UEFA Europa League and City extended their unbeaten run.

City are next in action on Sunday for their final Premier League match of the season before they prepare for next month’s FA Cup and Champions League Final.