Man City 1-2 Brentford (Foden 45+1 | Toney 16′, 90+8)
Ivan Toney bounced back from his World Cup disappointment by scoring twice as Brentford stunned Manchester City by winning 2-1 at the Etihad.
Harry Kane is the only Englishman to have scored more Premier League goals this season than Toney (11 to 10) but the Brentford striker was omitted from Gareth Southgate’s 26-man squad for Qatar, with Newcastle’s Callum Wilson preferred instead.
Toney gave Brentford an early lead against the reigning champions with a looping header before scoring the winner deep into second half injury time from a devastating counter-attack, after Phil Foden had smashed a half-volley into the roof of the net to draw City level.
The 26-year-old came close to securing a second match ball of the campaign too with only a goal-line clearance from Kevin De Bruyne denying him a hat-trick late on.
More from Football
Gary Lineker: 'Human rights abuses and homophobia in Qatar make me queasy about this World Cup'12 November, 2022
Klopp talks takeover impact on transfers, Guardiola's World Cup warning, Conte on Kane fitness11 November, 2022
Why Sancho, James and Toney aren’t at the World Cup – the big England omissions explained11 November, 2022“Listen, the only thing is to keep doing well, keep doing my best, keep doing well for the team and who knows what will happen,” Toney told BT Sport afterwards. “Obviously it was a disappointment, but I know what I’m capable of and I won’t let it put me down. I’ll just keep going and keep doing well for Brentford.”
He added: “[My] motivation is for the boys in the dressing room and the fans as you can see. When we work hard, this is what we can do.
“He could have had three or four today!” said Ben Mee. “He showed today what he’s about. Great quality, great battling skills, great hold up play and he can finish so fantastic today and fully deserved the two goals.”
BT Sport pundit Rio Ferdinand said: “I think he’ll still be confident with his decision. But from Toney’s point of view, this was the perfect response. He needed this a week, two weeks ago. If he’d done that then it could have been a different outcome.
“But he can only do what he can do now and he got two good goals today, his team won and he’ll be happy for this break.”
Southgate handed Toney his first England call-up in September for the Nations League games against Italy and Germany and was criticised for not using the striker at all.
Explaining his decision to leave Toney out, Southgate said: “For us, September was a good opportunity to have a look at Ivan on the training pitch, to learn a bit more about him, for him to see how we work. We knew and had discussed with him it was a long shot to be involved at this time in a World Cup.
“We’ve tracked all the players since. We think Callum’s just in that really rich vein of form and has been with us a little bit more, been on the pitch with us, we know him a little bit better.”
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/6xV9QF3
Post a Comment