LONDON: Marten de Roon’s stoppage-time header earned Middlesbrough a 1-1 draw at Manchester City on Saturday to leave Pep Guardiola’s side in a vulnerable position at the Premier League summit.
Sergio Aguero’s 150th City goal looked to have sent his team three points clear, but De Roon brought the Etihad Stadium back to earth following Tuesday’s brilliant 3-1 win over Barcelona in the Champions League.
“We did absolutely everything to win the game,” said Guardiola, whose side have drawn their last three home league games 1-1 following previous stalemates against Everton and Southampton.
“We controlled the game and in the last minute we concede a goal. It is a pity. We did a lot of good things and tried to win the game.
“It is a miss because we have dropped six points in the last three home games, but we are still there. We have to move forward.”
City’s slip-up means Chelsea can surpass them if they overcome Everton in Saturday’s late game, while Arsenal and Liverpool — both just a point off the pace — will also have designs on top spot.
Second-place Arsenal tackle Tottenham Hotspur in Sunday’s North London derby before Liverpool entertain Watford.
Elsewhere, bottom club Sunderland ended their wait for a first win of the season at the 11th attempt by coming from behind to win 2-1 at Bournemouth despite having Steven Pienaar sent off.
Boro’s trip to the Etihad reunited Guardiola with his former Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes and the Spain international set the tone for his one-time mentor’s day.
Valdes saved brilliantly from Aguero and David Silva in the first half, while Kevin De Bruyne shot just wide from Aguero’s pass.
With half-time beckoning, the hosts went ahead in the 43rd minute as Aguero dispatched De Bruyne’s sumptuous cross to register his 150th goal in 223 City appearances.
Boro showed more attacking intent in the second half, former City striker Alvaro Negredo almost catching out Claudio Bravo with an audacious lob from his own half before Bravo saved smartly from Adam Forshaw.
And after Aguero had squandered a late chance to make the game safe, Dutch midfielder De Roon met George Friend’s deep cross with a thumping header to earn Boro a dramatic point.
Sunderland remain bottom, below Swansea City on goal difference, but manager David Moyes belatedly has a victory to his name following a hard-fought success at Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium.
After Adam Smith had teed up Dan Gosling to bundle in an 11th-minute opener for Bournemouth, Victor Anichebe equalized with his first Sunderland goal.
Pienaar was sent off just before the hour after receiving a second yellow card for a lunge on Junior Stanislas, but Jermain Defoe netted a 74th-minute winner from the spot after Smith felled Anichebe.
“It is a big relief,” Moyes told Sky Sports. “We owed the supporters the victory. They have kept with us.
“We needed a win, but it is only one. We need a few more.”
There was late drama at Turf Moor as Burnley withstood a Crystal Palace fightback to prevail 3-2 courtesy of Ashley Barnes’s 94th-minute strike.
Sam Vokes and Johann Berg Gundmundsson put Burnley 2-0 up, only for Palace to hit back through second-half goals by substitute Connor Wickham and Christian Benteke.
Marten De Roon frustrates Man City; Sunderland tastes win
Marten De Roon frustrates Man City; Sunderland tastes win
Marmoush, Salah strike as Egypt edge out holders Ivory Coast in quarter-final
- Egypt wasted little time in taking the lead as Marmoush scored in the fourth minute
- That set up a siege of the Egyptian goal in the final 15 minutes but they held out to advance
AGADIR, Morocco: Omar Marmoush netted the opener and Mohamed Salah scored the decisive goal as Egypt ended Ivory Coast’s reign with a narrow 3-2 triumph in Saturday’s Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final.
Center back Rami Rabia was the other scorer for the Egyptians, who had little possession at the Grande Stade Agadir but took their chances with clinical precision and held on grimly to book a semifinal meeting with Senegal on Wednesday.
An own goal from Ahmed Fatouh and a late effort by Guela Doue proved insufficient for the Ivory Coast, winners of the tournament on home soil two years ago but now deposed as African champions.
Egypt, who have won a record seven Cup of Nations titles, wasted little time in taking the lead as Marmoush scored in the fourth minute after Hamdi Fathy pinched the ball from Franck Kessie in the midfield, allowing Emam Ashour to thread a pinpoint ball to the sprinting Marmoush. He still needed to shrug off the attentions of defender Odilon Kossounou before slotting home.
But it quickly became clear the Ivorians were going to dominate possession, showing much more physical strength on the ball but without setting up clear chances.
Egypt went 2-0 up in the 32nd minute when Rabia rose above the defenders to head his side further ahead from a corner.
The Ivory Coast, who had 70 percent of possession in the first half, reduced the deficit eight minutes later when teenager Yann Diomande’s freekick near the corner took a slight brush off Kossounou’s head and ricocheted off the knee of full back Fatouh and into the net.
SALAH FINISHED OFF CLEVER MOVE
The Ivorians had come from 2-0 down to beat Gabon 3-2 earlier in the tournament but hopes of turning the scoreline around soon after the re-start were stymied by a simply created, but superbly finished, goal for Salah seven minutes after the break.
Rabia was well inside his own half when he chipped the ball over the top of the Ivorian defensive line, allowing Ashour to run onto it and hit an accurate pass with the outside of his right boot into the path of Salah to score.
An Ivorian comeback was still on when Doue touched home at the end of a goalmouth scramble in the 73rd minute.
That set up a siege of the Egyptian goal in the final 15 minutes but they held out to advance.
Earlier on Saturday, Nigeria overpowered Algeria 2-0 in Marrakech and will take on hosts Morocco in the other semifinal.
