City EDS 1 – 1 Sunderland – Match Report
26 Aug
City EDS recorded their first point of the Barclays U21 Premier League season after a hard-fought 1-1 draw with Sunderland at Ewen Fields. The prolific Jordy Hiwula put Patrick Vieira’s men ahead with a composed finish in the first half, only to see the visitors’ Duncan Watmore level with a clinical strike shortly afterwards. Despite the attempts of both sets of players to conjure a winner after the break, that decisive flash of quality was absent and the draw was just about what both sides deserved.
This may only have been the second game of the campaign, but it acquired extra importance after opening day defeats for those involved. City had thrown away a 1-0 lead to suffer a crushing late defeat away to Chelsea while Sunderland had fallen at home to Liverpool and nerves were in the air during an uncertain opening period.
On a pleasantly mild night at Ewen Fields, it was the visitors who carved out the first geniune chance of the evening, but Watmore could only drag his effort narrowly wide from an inviting position after pouncing on a poor clearance from City goalkeeper Angus Gunn.
The game took on a scrappy edge with neither side able to keep sustained control of possession, but City injected a moment of quality into proceedings to break the deadlock midway through the first half. A flowing passing move found Sinan Bytyqi who in turn fed Hiwula and the striker burst free to coolly slot home. After scoring the winner in last week’s friendly with FC Schalke, the frontman’s confidence was high and he continued his fine form in front of goal to put the Blues ahead.
That goal seemed to spark the home side into life and as City’s youngsters found their feet, they went close on a couple of occasions to grabbing a second. Jose Pozo saw his shot blocked in the area after dancing his way through a couple of challenges before Hiwula fired straight at Maksymilian Stryjek when through one-on-one.
That miss would prove costly, however, as directly from Stryjek’s clearance, Sunderland broke up the other end of the pitch and Watmore took advantage of a bouncing ball to glide past Gunn and poke home to bring the scores level at half-time.
As both teams pressed for the crucial third goal of the game, matters took on a more open feel. Gunn needed all of his considerable reach to prevent being embarrassed by an audacious lob from distance while Pozo continued to pose problems to Sunderland’s backline with his nifty footwork and direct approach.
Bytyqi forced a smart, low save from Stryjek following a twisting run down the right, but despite Vieira introducing the trio of Olivier Ntcham, Kean Bryan and Thierry Ambrose from the bench, neither side could find a way through. Indeed, Ntcham’s wayward finish in injury time from a promising position was an apt way to close out the encounter and send the two sides home with a point apiece.
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