By Goal.com News on Tuesday, 02 March 2021
Category: Goal.com News

City leave it late in 4-1 Wolves rout

Manchester City have eventually seen off Wolves despite the West Midlanders giving the hosts a scare. Wolves must have hoped they'd be able to hold on after Coady cancelled out Dendoncker's first-half own goal. Three goals in the last 10 minutes sealed the deal for City, with Jesus nabbing himself a cheeky double.

90' + 3' FULL-TIME: MANCHESTER CITY 4-1 WOLVES

90' + 2' Jesus thinks that he's grabbed a second goal as the Brazilian poaches Gundogan's shot. Patricio made the save but couldn't hold it. The offside flag goes up initially but VAR will intervene again...

90' + 1' There'll be three minutes of added time. City are about to secure 21 wins in a row. This City team really are formidable.

88' Dendoncker slides in to stop Jesus' cross with Sterling the only player attacking the Wolves box. Neto sets off upfield but Walker screens the ball and ends up winning the foul.

87' Wolves succeed in winning a corner down their left. Moutinho will take it. Moutinho swings it in and Laporte heads it out. Neto sends it back in and Dendoncker's header flashes over the bar.

86' Coady makes a vital tackle to prevent Mahrez from dancing into the six-yard box. If Wolves want to get anything from this game, they're going to have to find another goal from somewhere.

85' Jesus has been involved in 45 goals in 53 starts in all competitions for City at the Etihad. The Brazilian's not Aguero but he's still very good.

84' Mahrez shows some sweet feet to hold off Hoever until Gundogan can help him out. Hoever eventually manages to clear the ball. Wolves may have managed to score once but it feels unlikely that they'll do so again.

78' Gundogan is stripped and ready to come on for City. The German's become more known for his goalscoring this season.

77' City get a corner and decide to take it short. Sterling picks up possession just outside the box and shifts onto his right foot to curl an effort towards goal. Patricio's beaten but it clips the outside of the post!

75' Coady makes a well-timed clearance with his head. Wolves are defending admirably as City continue to chuck everything at them.

73' Chance for City! Shortly after a City corner, Sterling flashes a backheel wide of the far post as Mahrez gets in a free cross on the overlap. The shot's so close to regaining the lead for City.

70' Patricio makes a routine save from De Bruyne as the Belgian gets a half-chance in the centre of the box. The tempo of this game has suddenly upped dramatically.

69' Wolves have come alive since the goal. Although they do nothing with their corner, the visitors get another chance shortly after as Neto's effort in the area is blocked. It comes out to Traore just inside the area who is unable to keep his effort down.

67' This is a different game now with Wolves suddenly sensing weakness in City. Traore bursts into the penalty area and clatters a shot against Dias for a corner.

65' City look offended to have conceded a goal. Cancelo's shot from inside the box is blocked and Jesus inspires another save from Patricio. The keeper saves with his foot as the Brazilian shoots from a tight angle. It whizzes out on the opposite side for a City corner.

63' Jesus fires over from the right of the box. Wolves need to make sure they don't get carried away. They've waited most of the game for an equaliser. They don't want to blow it in a matter of minutes.

62' Wolves have scored with not just their first shot of the game but their first touch all game in City's box. How will City respond now?

60' Wolves earn a free-kick deep in City's half as Rodri trips over Moutinho. Is this the opportunity they've been waiting for?

58' Cancelo lifts a cross in towards Jesus which is headed away. Moutinho gets caught by the closing De Bruyne and ends up winning a free-kick.

57' Laporte commits an accidental handball. Wolves will grow in confidence the longer the scoreline stays the same.

54' Patricio gets called into action again as Mahrez aims for the far corner on his favoured left foot. It's a simple push away for the Wolves keeper.

53' Cancelo's shot from the left clatters off a defender. Wolves are managing to hang on for the moment but they're starting to waver since the start of the half.

52' Wolves are preparing a change. Fabio Silva is getting ready to come on.

51' City's corner doesn't come to very much. Neto succeeds in winning a free-kick from Walker.

50' Patricio keeps City at bay once more, getting low to his left to keep out De Bruyne's low rasp. It'll be a City corner.

48' Silva waits too long to find Walker on the overlap, by which time Walker would have been offside. Walker has no choice but to let the ball go out and Guardiola gives Silva a piece of his mind.

46' City get us started again for the second half. The Citizens are unbeaten in their last 26 league games in which they've been leading at half-time. The last team to beat them in such circumstances were Wolves in that 3-2 cracker at Molineux in Christmas 2019. Can Espirito Santo's men do the same again here?

46' Traore gets the opportunity to run at City's defence. The Spaniard has Neto free in space to his left but ends up going for a safer pass instead. That's unfortunate for Neto, who would have had a chance to shoot had Traore played him in.

Wolves didn't have a shot in that first half and only had 25 per cent of the ball. Still, they're only a goal behind, so they're in this game if they can offer more going forward. City will be content with how that first half went. Guardiola will probably be telling his players that now they just need to get the job done. 

City lead at the break thanks to Dendoncker's own goal. The hosts have been comfortably on top but Wolves have done well to limit their chances. Wolves haven't posed an attacking threat at all but they've given themselves a platform to build on in the second half.

45' + 1' City almost double their lead on the stroke of half-time! Patricio makes an important save from Silva's low header in the box. Silva blazes over on the follow-up. That'll be that for now.

45' + 1' HALF-TIME: MANCHESTER CITY 1-0 WOLVES

45' The officials confirm the goal will not stand. Laporte's shoulder was just ahead of Dendoncker's foot. That was close for Wolves. There'll be one added minute in this first half.

44' Laporte has the ball in the net as he pokes Mahrez's cross in at the far post but the offside flag immediately goes up. VAR is going to take a look...

43' De Bruyne is in a decent centre-left position and steps onto his right foot to shoot. Semedo is there to make the block. It's a corner which Wolves only half-clear.

42' Hoever foolishly strays offside just when Wolves are starting to get somewhere. They might not see the ball again for a while.

41' Mahrez sends the corner in but Patricio deals with it fairly easily. The Wolves goalkeeper's only had one save to make.

40' Neto gies the ball away to Jesus and Sterling's shot is blocked. Mahrez's follow-up effort is deflected behind for a corner.

39' Traore wins possession for Wolves but Wolves are unable to do anything with it. This has been Wolves' problem so far - they're sitting so deep that their attackers are outnumbered when they do win the ball.

37' The offside flag goes up against Cancelo as he tries to race free on the overlap. Wolves will have a free-kick.

35' There's not a huge amount to report at the moment. City are making this game look extremely easy.

33' Cancelo nips in to nab the ball off Neto as the winger looks to beat his man down the right. City are looking watertight at the moment.

32' Silva's throughball is cut out by Saiss and Wolves look to break forward. Traore buys his team a free-kick as Silva looks to make amends.

31' For all City's dominance, Wolves are doing a decent job of limiting the hosts' chances. Patricio's not had a huge amount to do yet.

29' City are passing Wolves to death. Mahrez swings the ball across goal after receiving a cute pass from Silva. Semedo gets back to clear it away.

27' There are eight Portuguese players starting for City and Wolves in this match. That's more than in any other game in Premier League history.

25' City play keep-ball at the back for a while as Wolves decide not to venture forward. You can't blame the visitors for being reluctant to take the bait.

23' De Bruyne sweeps a wonderful pass into Wolves' box from the left that Patricio rushes out to gather. This City side are relentless.

21' Sterling darts behind Wolves' defence again and is tracked all the way by Dendoncker. Traore senses an opportunity to run through the middle and gets caught by Laporte's sliding tackle. City put the ball out and Wolves return it out of courtesy once it's clear Traore can carry on.

19' Wolves get their first spell of possession in City's half. Unfortunately for them Coady plays a poor pass and the hosts come back on the attack. Walker latches onto Mahrez's knockdown but can't stop the ball going out for a goal-kick.

17' Silva plays the ball to Mahrez down the right and the Algerian is kind enough to return it. Coady steps in to clear Silva's cross.

13' Dias takes an accidental hand in the face from Traore who's challenging for a header. The Portuguese centre-back wipes his eyes and soon looks fine to continue.

11' Cancelo, playing as a more orthodox left-back than usual so far, passes inside and City work the ball to the opposite flank. Mahrez is beaten to a pass by Jonny who wins a foul.

10' Mahrez cuts in on his favoured left foot to whip in a devilish ball which Patricio feels compelled to punch away. Wolves have barely been able to escape their own half yet.

8' Wolves play a little sloppily out from the back, allowing City to press them. Dendoncker gets in the way of a De Bruyne shot and City have another corner.

7' City are already settled in possession with Wolves content to sit deep. The hosts have had 87 per cent possession so far. Dias clips the ball forward to find the run of Sterling who keeps it in play but can't create a scoring chance.

5' Wolves are playing a 5-4-1 without the ball with Traore acting as the lone striker. The Spaniard played there with devastating effect when Wolves won here last season, scoring twice on the counter-attack. No doubt they'll be hoping he can have the same impact again with his pace.

4' De Bruyne finds a yard to beat Hoever to the left of the box but Dendoncker is well-placed to make the clearance.

2' Manchester City start brightly as Sterling forces a decent save from Patricio as he runs into the box from the left. The corner's taken short to Cancelo whose ball in is cleared.

1' And we're off here in Manchester as Wolves get us underway!

The two sides are out on the Etihad Stadium pitch. City are in their usual sky blue shirts and white shorts. Wolves will play in their Portugal-style burgundy away kit.

City are looking to secure their third Premier League double over Wolves after winning 3-1 at Molineux in September, as well as match a club record of 28 games unbeaten. While Wolves won this fixture 2-0 last season, they haven't won back-to-back top-flight away games against the Citizens since their 1950s heyday. They'll have to be at their best to even get a draw here.

Guardiola makes six changes to the City team that defeated West Ham here 2-1 last weekend. Stones, Gundogan, Foden, and Aguero all drop to the bench. What a squad they have. In contrast, there's just one change to the Wolves side that drew 1-1 with Newcastle last time out as Hoever comes in for Willian Jose.

SUBS: Rayan Ait Nouri, Morgan Gibbs-White, Vitinha, Willy Boly, John Ruddy, Willian Jose, Owen Otasowie, Maximilian Kilman, Fabio Silva.

WOLVES (3-4-3): Rui Patricio; Leander Dendoncker, Conor Coady (c), Romain Saiss; Ki-Jana Hoever, Ruben Neves, Joao Moutinho, Jonny; Nelson Semedo, Pedro Neto, Adama Traore.

SUBS: Sergio Aguero, Ferran Torres, John Stones, Phil Foden, Eric Garcia, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Fernandinho, Ilkay Gundogan, Zack Steffen.

MANCHESTER CITY (4-3-3): Ederson; Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias, Aymeric Laporte, Joao Cancelo; Kevin De Bruyne (c), Rodri, Bernardo Silva; Riyad Mahrez, Gabriel Jesus, Raheem Sterling.

Unfortunately for Wolves, facing City here is exactly what they will have to do. Nuno Espirito Santo's team aren't as awkward an opponent as they have been the past few campaigns as their transitional season continues. However, the West Midlanders sit comfortably midtable and still have enough about them to cause the would-be champions problems.

Manchester City have turned the Premier League title race into a title procession. Pep Guardiola's side enter this game 12 points clear at the top of the table, having won their last 20 games in a row in all competitions. They haven't been behind for a single minute in their last 18 league games. Simply put, which team would want to face them right now?

Hello! Welcome to our live text commentary of this Premier League match between Manchester City and Wolves at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester.

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