Erling Haaland’s penalty miss cost Manchester City as the four-time defending Premier League champion dropped more points in a 1-1 draw with Everton on Thursday.
Haaland had the chance to fire City on course for only its second win in 13 games when stepping up for a 53rd-minute spot kick at the Etihad Stadium. But his tame effort was saved by Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford to extend City’s woeful run.
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Pep Guardiola’s team has lost nine of its last 13 games in all competitions. The draw means City picked up only its fifth point in the league since the end of October.
City is seventh in the standings and 11 points behind leader Liverpool, having played two games more. Liverpool has the chance to extend its lead over the champion when it plays Leicester later Thursday.
Second-place Chelsea also dropped points after a 2-1 loss at home to Fulham, and Nottingham Forest won 1-0 against Tottenham to go up to third.
Newcastle is fifth after a 3-0 win against Aston Villa. Sixth-place Bournemouth drew 0-0 with Crystal Palace. West Ham won 1-0 at last-place Southampton.
City went ahead through Bernardo Silva’s deflected shot in the 14th, but Iliman Ndiaye leveled the score in the 36th.
Haaland’s missed penalty means the Norway international has only scored once in his last seven games. He headed in from the rebound, but the goal was ruled out for offside.
{{/usCountry}}Haaland’s missed penalty means the Norway international has only scored once in his last seven games. He headed in from the rebound, but the goal was ruled out for offside.
{{/usCountry}}Haaland, who last week admitted his form had not been good enough during a run that has seen City’s season unravel, held his head in his hands after his failure to score from the spot. He still has 18 goals in 25 appearances this season, but has not scored in a win for his club since the 1-0 victory against Southampton on Oct. 26.
“We shoot a lot in the 18-yard box, but unfortunately we could not get the results that we wanted,” Guardiola said afterward.
City’s damaging run has seen it slip down the standings in the league and crash out of the English League Cup. It is also in danger of missing out on the playoffs for the round of 16 in the Champions League — sitting just one point above the cut off point with two games to play.
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James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer