Manchester City were, once again, held to a frustrating draw against Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium, which means they miss out on overtaking Liverpool in third.
City came into the game on the back of a disappointing bore draw to Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium, with Pep Guardiola’s men looking to take advantage of an “easy” run-in to consolidate their position in the top four by beating relegation-battling Middlesbrough.
Boro, on the other hand, were fighting for their place in the Premier League and were on the back of a 1-0 win over now-relegated North East rivals Sunderland. Top-four hopefuls and rivals Manchester United failed to overtake City earlier on, when they drew 1-1 with relegation-battling Swansea City at Old Trafford. This was City’s chance to gain some ground over the Red Devils.
The game overall was end-to-end, with Middlesbrough feeling unlucky to not have won the game near the end. Alvaro Negredo, a former City striker, gave Boro the lead with a curling strike that gave City goalkeeper Willy Caballero, in for the injured Claudio Bravo, no chance of saving it.
City were awarded a penalty in the 69th minute after Martin De Roon was adjudged to have tripped Leroy Sane, which was then converted by Sergio Aguero. There appeared to be minimal contact between both players, which angered Boro enough to spur them on to a second goal. Calum Chambers pounced on terrible defending – once again – by City to give Middlesbrough a 2-1 lead going into the final ten minutes of the game.
On the 85th minute, however, returning striker Gabriel Jesus equalled the score to make it 2-2 after terrible defending by Middlesbrough.
A point was all City could muster in what was another disappointing performance. The summer can’t come quick enough.
Here are our City player ratings from the game:
