Antoine Semenyo fired Manchester City to a gritty 1-0 win over Leeds on Saturday as the Premier League title chasers closed the gap on leaders Arsenal without Erling Haaland.
Semenyo netted late in the first half at Elland Road with his sixth goal since signing from Bournemouth in January.
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The Ghana forward’s strike lifted second-placed City to within two points of Arsenal, who host London rivals Chelsea on Sunday.
The game was briefly paused to allow the Muslim players on both teams, including City’s Omar Marmoush, Rayan Cherki and RayanAit-Nouri, to break their Ramadan fast at dusk.
Despite a message on the big screen revealing what the break was for, fans jeered when the players came to the side of the pitch, as you can hear in the video at the top of the page.
City boss Pep Guardiola was critical of the Leeds fans for booing the incident, calling it “unfortunate”.
“It’s the modern world, right? You know what happened in the world again today, right?” Guardiola said.
“Respect the religion, respect the diversity. That is the point. It’s the rule, we didn’t say that.
“It was the Premier League who said: for the fasting, you can spend one or two minutes in the game to do that, for the players to do it.
“So, yeah it’s what it is. Unfortunate.”
Kick It Out, a charity set up to fight discrimination in football, slammed the booing by some supporters.
“It’s massively disappointing that some Leeds United fans jeered when Manchester City’s players broke their fast during the first half of the match at Elland Road this evening,” Kick It Out wrote.
“This was compounded by the fact that an explanation was displayed on a big screen inside the stadium.
“Pausing the game to allow Muslim players to break their fast during Ramadan has been an agreed protocol for several years now. It’s an important and visible part of making the game welcoming for Muslim players and communities.
“But as tonight’s reaction shows, football still has a long way to go in terms of education and acceptance. “
Meanwhile, City’s fourth successive league win was achieved in the absence of Haaland after the prolific striker was ruled out with aninjury suffered in training on Thursday.
“A little injury. It’s not a big issue but not ready for today,” City boss Pep Guardiola said just before kick-off.
City hope Haaland will recover in time for Wednesday’s clash with Nottingham Forest.
Remarkably, City have a better win ratio in the top-flight without the Norway star than when he plays.
Although they were not at their best, City’s hard-fought success in a hostile environment kept the destiny of the title intheir own hands.
Chasing the seventh title of Guardiola’s reign, City will be guaranteed the crown if they win their last 10 games regardlessof Arsenal’s results across the same number of matches.
City will have a game in hand on Arsenal after this weekend and host the Gunners in April.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin wasted a golden opportunity to put Leeds ahead in the opening moments when he scuffed Brenden Aaronson’s cross wide with just Gianluigi Donnarumma to beat.
Calvert-Lewin went close again after the resumption, turning City defender Marc Guehi before shooting narrowly wide of thefar post.
Shaken by Leeds’ relentless pressing, City struggled to find any rhythm in the first half.
James Justin’s blast forced a good save from Donnarumma, while Aaronson poked just wide from Jayden Bogle’s cross.
Guardiola grew increasingly frustrated on the touchline as City failed to manage a single shot on target in the first 39 minutes.
Donnarumma came to City’s rescue again, smothering Aaronson’s effort after the Leeds midfielder scampered clear.
City finally showed signs of life when Marmoush’s low drive was held by Karl Darlow, who parried away Nico O’Reilly’s close-rangeheader moments later.
It was a warning Leeds failed to heed as City snatched the lead with an intricately crafted goal in first half stoppage-time.
Cherki’s pinpoint pass picked out Ait-Nouri’s run into the Leeds area and the defender’s low cross was perfectly placed for Semenyo to slide in with a close-range finish.
City looked more confident after Semenyo’s opener and should have gone further ahead after the interval.
Marmoush was just five yards out when he stretched in a failed attempt to convert Ruben Dias’ miscued shot.
– with news.com.au