Revealed: Jordan Pickford's two clever moments before saving Erling Haaland penalty
Everton took a point away from Manchester City as Erling Haaland was denied by Jordan Pickford, who saved a second-half penalty after some shrewd tactics to thwart the Norwegian
Jordan Pickford provided the crucial moment of the match as he denied Erling Haaland from the spot to earn Everton a point.
Manchester City were looking to snap their winless run but were instead held by the Toffees at the Etihad, despite taking the lead. In the second-half they were presented with a golden opportunity to re-take the lead when Savinho was fouled in the box.
Haaland, often so dependable from the spot, stepped up but saw Pickford save his penalty as he dived down to his right. The England shotstopper has become increasingly impressive at stopping spot kicks and did so again - after employing some clever tactics.
Initially Pickford went to his water bottle, which was covered with the possible City penalty takers and which way they often went. His information on Haaland proved to be right as he was able to keep the scores level.
READ MORE: Watch every Premier League match TODAY for FREE on Amazon Prime - plus kickoff timesREAD MORE: Man City's winless run extended as Erling Haaland pays the penalty against EvertonAs goalkeepers often do the Everton No.1 also prowled around the box, stepping off his line so as to delay Haaland to taking the penalty, before he stared down the Norwegian and pulled a face seconds before saving his spot kick.
City failed to have any clear cut chances following Haaland's penalty miss as their poor run of form continued. It means they remain outside the top four with Pep Guardiola admitting they cannot take Champions League qualification for granted given the state of affairs.
Despite that Manuel Akanji felt that the Manchester outfit were hard done by and deserved the three points. He said: "I don't think a draw was a fair result. We created a lot of chances, but unfortunately we were able to score only one and conceded one out of nothing.
"I think this was a game where we should be scoring three or four goals. But they didn't want to go in. we are trying to attack and then we lose the ball. Things like that cannot happen. We need to believe till the last moment that we can win the game."
He also added: "We need to focus on the positives. We did a lot of things great. We defended well and we attacked well, but were not able to finish as well as we wanted to or we could have scored three or four goals."
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