2 hours ago
10
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
90 min +2: Rodri initially wasn’t happy with the referee, but soon realised Mavropanos took an almighty whack on the noggin. He’s happily fine to get up and walk off, after some medical checks.
90 min +1: The ball drops to Haaland on the edge of the West Ham box. Haaland shapes like Zinedine Zidane in the 2002 Champions League final, swivelling to batter a shot goalwards. He smashes the ball straight at Mavropanos, who catches it straight in the mush. Right on his temple. Mavropanos goes down. The referee stops play immediately, as he should.
90 min: Reijnders swings the corner in. Rodri wins a header. O’Reilly flicks it on, six yards out. Any power, and it’s surely in. But there’s next to no power! And it’s straight at Hermansen, on the line! There will be four added minutes.
89 min: Fernandes is booked for a late challenge on Cherki, who was advancing down the right. Cherki will take the free kick himself. He floats it long. It skims off Mavropanos’s head. Corner to come in from the left.
88 min: Doku tears past Wan-Bissaka on the left and crosses low. Foden air-kicks, then Haaland chunks a shot straight to Hermansen, who smothers with glee. As close as City have come to forcing a winner, Doku besting his opponent for the first time since coming on.
87 min: Foden dribbles elegantly down the middle. As he prepares to shoot on the edge of the D, Fernandes arrives from nowhere to slide-tackle the ball away. What a challenge!
86 min: Bowen wins a pressure-releasing free kick, O’Reilly punished for a loose touch, and that’s greeted with a huge roar. West Ham hit the set piece long, and Rodri and Donnarumma very nearly confuse each other, getting too close on the edge of the box. But with Traore sniffing around, disaster is averted. The keeper claims.
84 min: Cherki is upended near the left-hand corner flag. A free kick. Reijnders whips it in … and it’s heading towards the top right! Hermansen tips onto the junction of crossbar and post and away! West Ham deal with the corner.
82 min: Doku drives down the left but Wan-Bissaka doesn’t give an inch. No way into the box. The West Ham defender is forced into the concession of corner number 12 for City, though. But nothing comes of it. This is a really impressive defensive display from West Ham. Whatever happens tonight, they don’t look like a relegation team at all.
80 min: A cross in from the right that Haaland can’t get anywhere near. Goal kick. The home fans are tense. So they crack the thickening atmosphere with a chorus of Bubbles. But their heroes can’t get out. Their heroes are holding their shape, though, and holding firm.
78 min: Cherki earns City a corner down the left. The set piece is headed clear by Mavropanos … but only to Cherki, who chests down, 12 yards out, just to the right of goal, and pearls a shot towards the bottom right. Hermansen uses safe hands to gather. That’s a fine block.
77 min: Rodri looks to burst into space down the middle, Magassa having taken a heavy touch. Magassa makes up by taking one for the team, telescoping a leg to bring Rodri down. Into the book he goes. Any cynic worth their salt will tell you he had to: City were breaking upfield, a man to the good.
75 min: … meanwhile Pep Guardiola has quite literally rung the changes. Semenyo and Silva are replaced by Foden and Reijnders. A reprieve for Haaland.
74 min: Another West Ham change as Traore replaces Castellanos.
73 min: Guardiola is still on the phone. Time to send on Foden? With nothing to lose, it’s hard to choose.
71 min: Bowen embarks on a brave, bustling run that sees off three men. But he’s started it deep in his own half, and there’s nobody up ahead to help him. Eventually he’s crowded out. He can’t do it all himself. But West Ham are digging in for a point, so it’s needs must.
70 min: Doku stands up Wan-Bissaka on the left. He chops back and rolls towards Haaland on the penalty spot. It’s a good chance, but the out-of-sorts star pull-scuffs his shot wide right. Most of the stadium waiting for the net to bulge. Haaland looks pained. Guardiola was reportedly about to hook him before the chance on 62 mins, then changed his mind. He might be about to change it again.
68 min: Rodri shovels a clever first-time pass down the inside-right channel to release Silva into the box. Silva’s heavy touch means he can’t get a shot away. Mavropanos slides across to block, just in time, and nothing comes from the resulting corner.
66 min: City have taken 11 attempts on goal. Or rather at goal. Only two have been on target, according to TNT. “Castellanos’s effort wasn’t the worst rabona result I’ve ever seen,” begins Christopher Faherty, “given Hernan Crespo once tried one in Chelsea’s semi-final CL loss against Monaco and he failed with it, carried over the touchline and stacked himself so hard against the advertising hoardings I thought he could be in genuine bother for a few seconds after. Luckily he was unhurt.”
65 min: Semenyo wins a corner down the right. It’s half cleared. Rodri crosses again from the same flank. With Guehi steaming in, planning to connect with a power header, Todibo flicks clear. That’s great last-ditch defending. Doku returns the ball miles over the bar.
64 min: West Ham respond by replacing Pablo with Magassa.
63 min: City have been energised by the subs. Cherki dribble-dances down the inside-left and scuffs a shot, but gets the benefit of a deflection wide. Silva sends in the corner … but Khusanov sends a harmless header over the bar.
62 min: Cherki’s very first act is to play a cute ball down the inside-right channel for Haaland, who enters the box and aims a shot through Mavropanos’s legs and towards the bottom left. Hermansen extends his fingers to save with the very tips. One corner leads to another, which leads to nothing.
60 min: … and here it comes, Pep still in the stands yammering away on his mobile. Marmoush and Ait-Nouri are replaced by Cherki and Dokul, which is a very attack-minded roll of the dice.
59 min: City prepare a double change. The Peps clearly unhappy.
57 min: Castellanos, his confidence high, decides to make a clearance 30 yards from his own goal via the medium of a rabona. It doesn’t quite come off, but he gets away with it. Full marks for ambition, though you do wonder whether Nuno might have a Welles-style word after the game.
56 min: Castellanos romps after a speculative Bowen pass down the left. He’s going to get there first, but that’s because he was well offside when the ball was sent. Up goes the flag.
55 min: Soucek crosses from the right. Castellanos flings himself spectacularly at the ball, but misses his attempt at connecting with a diving header, eyebrowing fresh air instead. Guehi is able to clear. City counter, Semenyo advancing down the left. He tries to find Haaland with a cross, but Todibo blocks and the ball balloons into the arms of Hermansen.
53 min: City stroke it around, but it’s all happening in their own half.
51 min: Once again, Pep’s on the phone. It’s eight past nine and he’s as nervous as hell.
49 min: Nunes tries to release Marmoush down the right. Hermansen is on point to snuff out the attack, racing miles out of his box to intercept and clear. The pass from Nunes, overhit, made the keeper’s work a tad easier than it might have otherwise been.
48 min: Silva slips Marmoush into the West Ham box from the right. Marmoush takes a touch to spin around and lash a low shot across the face of goal. Not too far wide left. Hermansen probably had it covered, though.
47 min: Bowen and Castellanos take turns to press hard down the West Ham right flank. Ait-Nouri and Khusanov hold firm, but they’re being made to work. The Hammers up for this after an impressive showing in that first half.
West Ham get the second half started. No changes. More of the same, please, everyone!
Half-time postbag. “I’m relieved to see City have found some shirts to wear. I flicked on the rugby briefly before kick-off and was astonished to see the French team seem to have decided to nick the Manchester City shirts and don them for the evening. Sacre (light) bleu!” – Nick Parish
“I remember a colour-blind caller to the Baker & Kelly 606 phone-in who had been to watch Dundee Utd play Aberdeen on a snow covered pitch. They used the trusty orange football, but as the game went on the snow started to melt away. By the second half the snow was completely gone, but unfortunately, they continued with the orange ball and the caller had to leave the game as all he could see were 22 players randomly running about the green pitch” – Ian Burch
“Nuno is just exactly the man that Arsenal West Ham need now. With Pep out of the picture for the moment, there’s space for the main character energy presence, and who better? Squint your eyes a little bit and it could be Orson Welles in one of his more reflective moods, radiating aura. All the West Ham players have to do is pick up some of that and translate it into goal-currency. It’s true that Welles ended up making adverts for sherry, but that came a lot later” – Charles Antaki
HALF TIME: West Ham United 1-1 Manchester City
Three minutes and 42 seconds passed between the two goals. The xG is 0.54 to 0.3 in West Ham’s favour. And to complete the stat dump, as things stand there’s a nine-point gap at the top …
… while West Ham have extricated themselves from the dropzone at Nottingham Forest’s expense. Big second 45 coming up!
45 min +1: There will be two additional minutes. Nothing happens in the first of them.
45 min: Pep Guardiola is allowed into his team’s dressing room during the break. He’s clearly unhappy at what he’s seen, and leaves his seat in the stand early. He misses a City near miss in doing so, as Haaland bustles his way down the inside-left channel and cuts back for Semenyo, who opens his body and tries to steer a sidefoot into the bottom left. Hermansen is rooted to the spot, and he’s not getting to the ball if it’s on target. It’s an inch or so wide. So close to City regaining the lead.
43 min: Bowen goes long in the hope of releasing Castellanos down the inside-right channel, but Guehi comes across to cover, just in time. West Ham have obviously taken a look at how Real Madrid bothered City during the week, because they’re causing a lot of trouble down what we should now refer to as Valverde’s Flank.
41 min: There’s a bit of an edge developing here, as Diouf catches Nunes. The referee in danger of losing some control. He probably should have dealt with Wan-Bissaka properly.
39 min: Wan-Bissaka slides in late on Guehi, and that’s not a good challenge either. Surely worth a booking, though somehow he gets away with it.
37 min: Here’s something Silva certainly meant to do: extend a leg and catch Fernandes on the shin. Frustrated that his act of genius was cancelled out so quickly? Into the book he goes.
GOAL! West Ham United 1-1 Manchester City (Mavropanos 35)
City’s lead doesn’t last too long! Bowen’s cross from the right is turned behind for a corner. Bowen takes the corner himself, sending it long. At the far stick, Mavropanos crashes a header off the underside of the bar, down and in! No stopping that one. “I tell you what, I guarantee he meant that!” quips Ally McCoist. Perfect comic timing.
33 min: Have to say, when Silva dinked that ball across in real time, my first instinct was: a staggering work of genius. But then on TNT, both Ally McCoist and Joe Cole suggest he was almost certainly looking for Haaland. And then it’s reported that he told City sub Phil Foden that he meant it. Whatever: it looked good.
GOAL! West Ham United 0-1 Manchester City (Silva 31)
Silva in a tight position on the left-hand corner of the six-yard box. Sent scampering there by Marmoush. He stands one up to the far stick for Haaland … or does he deliberately look to lob Hermansen, because the ball oscillates from right to left and dips into the top-right corner! Outrageous luck, or outrageous skill? You decide!
30 min: A couple of sore ones for West Ham, as Khusanov stands on Bowen’s leg and then Semenyo catches Diouf. Neither challenge appeared deliberate, all accidental, but both will have hurt. Thankfully no serious damage is done.
