FOOTBALL – MANCHESTER City’s post-Pep Guardiola era began with Josko Gvardiol’s stoppage-time winner earning a 2-1 victory at home to Bournemouth in Enzo Maresca’s first Premier League game in charge yesterday.
New Liverpool manager Andoni Iraola also required some even later intervention as Dominik Szoboszlai’s last-gasp penalty salvaged his side a 2-2 draw at Newcastle United, another club beginning the campaign with a new man at the helm.
An unpredictable opening weekend of the Premier League season also saw Unai Emery’s Aston Villa thrashed 4-0 at Brighton and Hove Albion, all the goals arriving before halftime.
Maresca’s reign began with a chastening Community Shield defeat by champions Arsenal last week and City were in danger of another loss after Marcus Tavernier slammed home a 26th-minute shot from a low ball across the area by Evanilson.
City huffed and puffed in response with newly-shaven Erling Haaland missing several chances to equalise.
But Marc Guehi, playing as a deep midfielder rather than in defence, hauled City level in the 84th minute when he rose to power home a header from a Rayan Cherki corner.
Gvardiol sparked wild celebrations with a close-range finish in the 91st minute that was initially ruled offside but allowed after a VAR overturn.
It was tough on Bournemouth and Iraola’s replacement Marco Rose as the south coast club’s 18-match record unbeaten league run stretching back to January came to an end.
Maresca, who was welcomed with a banner unfurled in the East Stand, said it had been a perfect day despite the scare.
“I was glad when it was over also, to give them the joy of the three points. It was quite emotional and the perfect day,” Guardiola’s former assistant at City said. “It’s a game that we deserved to win. A game probably you don’t need to win in the last eight minutes for the amount of chances we had.”
Fans of Newcastle and Liverpool were united in their show of respect for Kevin Keegan at St James’ Park after the death of their shared hero, who passed away aged 75 in July.
An emotional pre-match tribute to Keegan included a huge tifo depicting the man who scored 100 goals and won seven major trophies with Liverpool and who later played for and managed Newcastle, where he was known as King Kev.
Both sets of players wore warm-up shirts bearing Keegan’s name and famous No.7.
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