{"id":22731,"date":"2025-03-16T11:18:30","date_gmt":"2025-03-16T11:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=22731"},"modified":"2025-03-16T11:20:48","modified_gmt":"2025-03-16T11:20:48","slug":"man-city-stumble-forest-soar-in-champions-league-chase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=22731","title":{"rendered":"Man City stumble, Forest soar in Champions League chase"},"content":{"rendered":"

By AFP<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Manchester City failed to ease fears of missing out on next season\u2019s Champions League after twice blowing the lead to draw 2-2 against Brighton, while third-placed Nottingham Forest thrashed Ipswich 4-2 on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Erling Haaland and Omar Marmoush put City in front, but high-flying Brighton extended their unbeaten run to seven games thanks to Pervis Estupinan\u2019s free-kick and an Abdukodir Khusanov own goal.<\/span><\/p>\n

City boss Pep Guardiola said on Friday that just qualifying for the Champions League would be a \u201cbig success\u201d after a difficult season for a side used to lifting the league title.<\/span><\/p>\n

The English champions\u2019 early exit from Europe\u2019s top competition to Real Madrid had at least ensured a full week\u2019s preparation for Guardiola\u2019s men to bounce back from last weekend\u2019s dismal 1-0 defeat at Forest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marmoush was restored to the starting line-up and proved to be City\u2019s brightest spark going forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Egyptian won the penalty from which Haaland opened the scoring with his 29th goal of the season.<\/span><\/p>\n

City\u2019s lead lasted only 10 minutes as Estupinan curled a free-kick in off the post past the leaden-footed Stefan Ortega in the City goal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marmoush blasted City back in front from long range before half-time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brighton, though, took just three minutes into the second half to level again when Jack Hinshelwood\u2019s shot was turned into his own net by Khusanov.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nico Gonzalez hit the post as City pushed in vain for a winner.<\/span><\/p>\n

A top-five Premier League finish will almost certainly secure a Champions League place this season thanks to English clubs\u2019 strong performances in European competition.<\/span><\/p>\n

A point leaves City still in fifth, just one point ahead of Brighton in seventh.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always confident, in that I am a master. I do have moments when I can doubt but I find the right way, the positiveness in everything,\u201d said Guardiola.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI know it will be difficult for many reasons but we have nine games, nine finals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Forest hit four\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Forest\u2019s charge towards Europe\u2019s top club competition for the first time since 1980 continued with a dominant display at Portman Road.<\/span><\/p>\n

The visitors struck three times in six first-half minutes to close to within one point of second-placed Arsenal and move six clear of City.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nikola Milenkovic controlled a loose ball inside the area and blasted in on off the underside of the bar to open the floodgates.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anthony Elanga then drilled in his first goal since Boxing Day at the end of a blistering Forest counter-attack.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two minutes later Elanga took advantage of dreadful Ipswich defending to sprint clear and slot in his second of the afternoon.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a good spell in the first half that really changed the game for six minutes,\u201d said Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo, who is not getting carried away dreaming of Champions League football.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to focus on ourselves. Work as much as we can because there is a lot of football to be played yet.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jens Cajuste and George Hirst scored late consolation goals for Kieran McKenna\u2019s men either side of Jota Silva\u2019s fourth for Forest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ipswich\u2019s uphill task to beat the drop suffered another blow as Wolves pulled nine points clear of the bottom three with a 2-1 victory at Southampton thanks to a double from Jorgen Strand Larsen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Paul Onuachu pulled a goal back but Southampton remain on course to post the worst ever points tally in Premier League history.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bournemouth\u2019s bid to qualify for Europe for the first time is fading after a 2-1 home defeat to Brentford.<\/span><\/p>\n

Goals from Yoane Wissa and Christian Norgaard earned the Bees victory after Vitaly Janelt\u2019s own goal had opened the scoring for Bournemouth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Everton extended their unbeaten league run to nine games thanks to Jake O\u2019Brien\u2019s 90th-minute equaliser in a 1-1 draw against West Ham.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Manchester City failed to ease fears of missing out on next season\u2019s Champions League after twice blowing the lead to draw 2-2 against Brighton, while third-placed Nottingham Forest thrashed Ipswich 4-2 on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22733,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[221,10321,1592],"class_list":["post-22731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-champions-league","tag-forest","tag-man-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22731"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22731"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22734,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22731\/revisions\/22734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}