With Manchester City’s dream dying in the embers of an exhilarating Premier League season, Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero wrote themselves into club folklore with stoppage-time goals to seal a breathtaking 3-2 victory over Queen Park Rangers on Sunday and snatch their first title for 44 years.
In a tension-wracked climax to one of the most dramatic title battles for decades, City looked doomed to failure when trailing 2-1 to relegation-haunted QPR, while illustrious neighbors Manchester United were closing in on a 1-0 win at Sunderland and a 20th championship.
Wayne Rooney’s header seemed to have clinched a 13th Premier League crown for United manager Alex Ferguson, but Dzeko equalized for City in the second minute of the five added on at the Etihad and Aguero struck gold.
Photo: Reuters
The fulltime whistle had blown at Sunderland, but in Manchester, with barely 60 seconds to play in the 380th match of the Premier League’s 20th season, the Argentine burst into the area to lash his 23rd goal of the campaign and spark ecstatic scenes on the pitch, the stands and everywhere else in the Sky Blue half of the soccer-mad city.
It was the 1,066th goal of the season, a Premier League record, and City’s 93rd, a telling statistic as they edged out United on goal-difference alone.
With the Manchester sides finishing on 89 points, it was the first time the English title had been settled on goal-difference and the first occasion the top two had finished level on points since Arsenal and Liverpool had to be separated by goals scored in the 1988-1989 season.
Photo: EPA
City’s nostalgic Blue Moon anthem had seemed more appropriate, though, when QPR, who still avoided relegation thanks to Bolton Wanderers’ 2-2 draw at Stoke City, struck through Djibril Cisse and Jamie Mackie after the break to stun the hosts, who had led at halftime through Pablo Zabaleta’s goal.
With QPR — reduced to 10 men after former City midfielder Joey Barton elbowed Carlos Tevez — defending like men possessed, there was desperation on the pitch and the technical area, while some City fans were already wiping tears off their cheeks.
Substitute Dzeko restored hope, though, and Aguero, one of the mega-rich club’s best signings since Abu Dhabi’s Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan began pumping hundreds of millions of pounds into the transfer kitty, made the dream a reality.
“Five minutes from the end, I did not think we could win this game. We wanted this title and we deserved to win this championship,” City manager Roberto Mancini told Sky Sports, before going off to hold the trophy aloft. “After 44 years, I dedicate this to all our supporters. It’s an incredible moment. I thought we could get to 2-2 and hope Sunderland could draw. It’s been a crazy season.”
Captain and central defensive rock Vincent Kompany, a £6 million (US$9.7 million) bargain among the half a billion pounds worth of players signed since the Abu Dhabi takeover in 2008, shared the feelings of most of the 48,000 fans present.
“I want to say it is the best moment of my life, but if I’m honest then I would say, please never again this way,” Kompany said. “Did I give up? No, I never stopped believing. When Edin Dzeko scored to make it 2-2, it reminded me of our late goals against Tottenham and Sunderland.”
While City savored being top dogs in England for the first time since 1968, United were left to contemplate their first trophy-less season since 2004-2005.
Away from the euphoria of Manchester there was heartbreak for Bolton Wanderers, who drew 2-2 at Stoke City and were relegated with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers.
Victory would have earned them another season in the top flight, but instead QPR survived to make sure all last season’s promoted sides live to fight another campaign amongst the elite.
Arsenal claimed third spot and a Champions League place with a 3-2 win at West Bromwich Albion. Tottenham Hotspur were fourth after a 2-0 win at home to Fulham and Newcastle United ended fifth after losing 3-1 at Everton.
Tottenham face an anxious wait to see if they get another crack at Champions League soccer, as victory for Chelsea in this year’s final against Bayern Munich would mean they take a spot in next season’s competition at Tottenham’s expense.
In Sunday’s other matches, Chelsea defeated Blackburn Rovers 2-1, Norwich City beat Aston Villa 2-0, Swansea City defeated Liverpool 1-0 and Wigan Athletic edged Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-2.
With 17 wins and a draw from their previous 18 league matches at their Etihad fortress, the victory City required to seal the title, barring a United goal avalanche at Sunderland, over relegation-haunted QPR, appeared a formality.
Then again, the Premier League has delivered twists galore over the past nine months and the final day was no exception.
News of Rooney’s goal at Sunderland added to an already tense atmosphere at the Etihad Stadium and the relief was palpable when Zabaleta’s shot beat Paddy Kenny after 38 minutes.
The City fans’ joy turned to horror after the break, though, when a Joleon Lescott mistake allowed Cisse to equalize, before Mackie put the visitors ahead either side of Barton’s act of madness, which could land him a lengthy ban.
As City laid siege to the QPR goal only to be denied by Kenny’s heroics and frantic defending, “City throw it away” headlines loomed, while visiting boss Mark Hughes, sacked by City to make way for Mancini in 2009, looked set for the last laugh.
Then, with time appearing to stop, City turned the soccer world on its axis in thrilling style, moving out of the shadow of their mighty neighbors and completing a transformation from eccentric also-rans to kings of English soccer.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set