Ipswich Town 0 Manchester City 6: match report
By Ethan Aspinall, Sun 19 January 2025 18:35
Blues fire six past Ipswich in record equalling away win for City as they return to the top 4
Manchester City travelled to Ipswich Town on Sunday afternoon in need of a big performance to boost confidence following Tuesday's draw to Brentford having led the game at one point. With it being the first match since main striker Erling Haaland signed a lucrative new contract that will keep him at City until 2034, there was hope that the striker would prove what he has to offer to the Blues in the next 10 years. Ederson returned between the sticks. Ruben Dias returned in defence albeit an injury to Nathan Ake, partnered by Josko Gvardiol and Manuel Akanji with Matheus Nunes in right back. Mateo Kovacic and Ilkay Gundogan were in the holding midfield positions while Jeremy Doku, Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden played in attacking midfield while Haaland was the sole striker.
For the first 20 minutes or so of the game, it seemed that despite City having their usual dominant share of possession, it was Ipswich who had the better chances in attack, such as when former City striker Liam Delap was in a fine position to put Ipswich into the lead, but his attempt was saved by Ederson. The closest Ipswich got to getting themselves in front was perhaps Hutchinsons chance in the 24th minute after an attempt from an only half cleared free kick went just narrowly over the bar, taking a deflection on the way with a corner following. The corner itself also nearly resulted in trouble for City with O’Shea’s header being on target but luckily, straight into the hands of Ederson.
This would prove to be the most of City’s worries, however, as one way traffic would soon ensue. Just a minute later, a pass into the box from Doku found De Bruyne, who then made an effort at a cross, taking a deflection and falling to Foden, who had no more to do than poke the ball into the back of the net and give City the lead after 27 minutes, a well needed moment of brilliance for the Blues.
Just three minutes later, City’s joy doubled as a long range first time strike from Mateo Kovacic following a lay off from Foden powered into the back of the net to make it 2-0. A shot that was bound to go in as soon as it left the boot.
City were not done before half-time by any means as they continued to attack and cause problems for Ipswich. In the 42nd minute, a pass from De Bruyne into the six yard box once again found Foden who got the ball just underneath Walton, who may have been able to do better, to make the Blues go into half time with a comfortable three goal cushion, and this would go on to only be half the story.
With no intention of slowing down in the second half, City continued to press and Ipswich were losing the ball cheaply. This ultimately led to City’s fourth goal, scored by Doku after snatching the ball in the midfield and going all the way, with the eventual shot taking a big deflection off O’shea and into the net. A city game involving at least four goals and Erling Haaland not being one of the scorers is generally an unusual occurrence, but luckily for Haaland he was to get his goal to put City five up, after a good pass from Doku went between the defenders and put the chance on a plate for Haaland who slotted it home in the far left corner.
A string of changes were then made, with Haaland coming off for Mubama, De Bruyne for Mcatee, and Foden for Grealish. It didn’t take long for the next goal to go in despite the changes, scored by Mcatee after a chip from Kovacic fell to his head to poke the ball over the keeper and into the back of the net following a perfectly timed run. 6-0 City.
For the remainder of the match, Ipswich tried to salvage some sort of consolation, but the damage was done and they continued to be shut out by the Blues. City managed to keep a clean sheet and the game finished 6-0, a record-equalling Premier League away win for City matched only by a victory away at Watford in September 2017.
The result meant City returned to the top 4 for the first time since November with +6 GD, with a challenging run of fixtures coming up, City will hope to use this large victory as a morale boost to push on and dig deep in the coming games.
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