Leeds United Saturday bravely fought back from a 2-0 half time deficit, but they were unable to escape the Etihad Stadium with a point, going down 3-2 to Manchester City courtesy of Phil Foden strikes at both ends of the clock.
After dispiriting losses to Newcastle and Leverkusen, Man City wasted absolutely no time in their attempts to nail down a sixth successive Premier League (PL) home victory, with less than a minute on the clock when Matheus Nunes crossed in the box for Phil Foden to control and fire a precision strike into the roof of the Leeds net.
Even for a side that had beaten only bottom club Wolves on the road this term, it represented a nightmare start, and with City then dominating possession in the minutes immediately after, it seemed a mere question of ‘how many’ and ‘when’.
The answer to the latter was the 25th minute, as Joško Gvardiol netted on the rebound when Leeds failed to clear a Foden corner, with his first strike of 2025/26 having to survive a VAR review.
As for ‘how many’, City fans with longer memories were perhaps making comparisons with the momentum they had nearly four years ago, when thrashing the Whites 7-0 here after a match opener from Foden.
On that occasion, they’d gone into the break 3-0 up, but Leeds at least managed to avoid such a fate this time around, preventing any further scares up to HT.
