Skip to main content

Aguero stunner saves Manchester City

February 3, 2013 -- Updated 2149 GMT (0549 HKT)
Manchester City's Argentina striker Sergio Aguero (right) celebrates scoring the equalizer at home to Liverpool on Sunday.
Manchester City's Argentina striker Sergio Aguero (right) celebrates scoring the equalizer at home to Liverpool on Sunday.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Roberto Mancini says English title race is not over despite Manchester City's draw
  • Premier League champions need equalizer from Sergio Aguero at home to Liverpool
  • The 2-2 result leaves City nine points behind Manchester United with 13 games to play
  • Gareth Bale puts Tottenham closer to third place with winner against 10-man West Brom

(CNN) -- Sergio Aguero earned Manchester City a long-awaited title in the final seconds of last season, and his manager hopes that Sunday's stunning effort against Liverpool means the 2012-13 Premier League crown is still a possibility.

Second-placed City came from behind to snatch a 2-2 draw, but still ended the weekend nine points behind rivals Manchester United.

Aguero netted his ninth league goal this season with a superb piece of skill, beating Pepe Reina to a throughball and then chipping a delightful shot over the goalkeeper from out wide on the right.

"Two years ago Chelsea were nine points behind and when they went to play at Old Trafford two games from the end they were only two points behind," City manager Roberto Mancini told reporters.

'El Tigre' Falcao on the hunt for goals
Jerome Valcke: Match-fixing a 'disease'
Schmeichel's Champions League prediction
Mancini is right man for Man City

"Two games and the championship is reopened. I don't think this is finished but probably now we have to win all the games but if not then 11 or 12 games.

Read: Rooney strike extends Man Utd lead

"Last year we recovered eight points in six games so I don't know why it can't happen this year. We have 15 games and United have to play in FA Cup and the Champions League so the season is long -- three months -- and we are confident."

Having let Mario Balotelli move to AC Milan, Mancini started with Aguero and Edin Dzeko up front, and it was the Bosnian who broke the deadlock in the 23rd minute with his 11th in the league.

Dzeko was also involved in Liverpool's equalizer, as new signing Daniel Sturridge scored his fourth goal in six games despite an apparent foul by teammate Daniel Agger on the City striker.

"The referee said to play on -- he said not to kick the ball out," Sturridge revealed.

"It is not our job to kick the ball out. If the referee says to kick it out we will do that, and if he says play on then we'll play on. We played on and we scored."

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard put his side head with a stunning volley in the 73rd minute, but Aguero -- whose injury-time goal against Queens Park Rangers in May ended City's 44-year wait for a league title -- embarrassed Reina soon after to leave the visitors in seventh place.

"Aguero's finish for the second was unbelievable but from our perspective we are bitterly disappointed he was in that situation," said Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers.

"It was a mistake, everyone is clear on that, but I can't fault the players."

Tottenham closed to within a point of third-placed Chelsea with a 1-0 victory at 10-man West Bromwich Albion on Sunday thanks to Gareth Bale's 11th league goal this season.

However, it was marred by an ankle injury to striker Jermain Defoe, who will miss England's prestige midweek friendly against Brazil.

Ninth-placed West Brom had Goran Popov sent off for spitting just after halftime.

"The game changed with the sending-off. I'm absolutely disgusted with Goran's behavior," said his manager Steve Clarke.

ADVERTISEMENT
Part of complete coverage on
CNN Football Club
Be part of CNN's coverage of European Champions League matches and join the social debate.
May 23, 2013 -- Updated 1052 GMT (1852 HKT)
The logo of FC Bayern Muenchen is pictured on the hood of an Audi A1 during a promotional event at the Audi factory on August 21, 2010 in Ingolstadt, Germany. Luxury-car manufacturer Audi turned cars over to the players of FC Bayern Muenchen.
When Germany's two biggest soccer clubs go head-to-head in the Champions League final, there can only be one winner: German industry.
May 22, 2013 -- Updated 1356 GMT (2156 HKT)
The Bundesliga model of sustainability is very much in vogue. But are Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund creating a dangerous duopoly?
May 23, 2013 -- Updated 1106 GMT (1906 HKT)
Bayern Munich super fan Boris Becker takes a tour of London ahead of the 2013 Champions League final.
May 23, 2013 -- Updated 1015 GMT (1815 HKT)
CNN takes an exclusive look at the venue of the Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund tease
CNN's Pedro Pinto gives his analysis of the Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
May 17, 2013 -- Updated 1710 GMT (0110 HKT)
David Beckham embraced his tag as a "gay icon" and has been credited with breaking the big taboo -- homosexuality in football.
May 13, 2013 -- Updated 0750 GMT (1550 HKT)
'King' Alex Ferguson is quitting Manchester United but the $3.17 billion brand will survive, according to experts.
May 7, 2013 -- Updated 1418 GMT (2218 HKT)
Italian football lags behind its other European rivals commercially, but newly-crowned Italian champions Juventus is showing Serie A clubs an example of revival.
April 24, 2013 -- Updated 1434 GMT (2234 HKT)
Luis Suarez's biting of Branislav Ivanovic is the latest episode of moments of madness when soccer stars behave badly.
March 29, 2013 -- Updated 0938 GMT (1738 HKT)
Former South African president and Nobel peace prize laureate Nelson Mandela joins guests at his home in Cape Town, on August 20, 2008 to celebrate his 90th birthday year, at an event organised by the Mandela Rhodes Foundation (RODGER BOSCH
Sunderland's partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation is part of its bid to woo the African market.
March 28, 2013 -- Updated 1558 GMT (2358 HKT)
South African children play football in a township in Bloemfontein on June 21, 2010. South Africa will face France in their final Group A, 2010 World Cup, first round football match on June 22.
Each year as many as 700 Cameroonian young footballers leave Africa in search of a professional career abroad.
May 6, 2013 -- Updated 1201 GMT (2001 HKT)
Referees across Europe are feeling the heat. Insulted, threatened, chased off the field, attacked, hospitalized and, tragically, killed.
February 26, 2013 -- Updated 1225 GMT (2025 HKT)
A real human brain being displayed as part of new exhibition at the @Bristol attraction is seen on March 8, 2011 in Bristol, England. The Real Brain exhibit - which comes with full consent from a anonymous donor and needed full consent from the Human Tissue Authority - is suspended in large tank engraved with a full scale skeleton on one side and a diagram of the central nervous system on the other and is a key feature of the All About Us exhibition opening this week.
Footballers have a battery of physios, fitness trainers and doctors all striving to fine-tune their physique -- but are they missing a trick?
February 26, 2013 -- Updated 1424 GMT (2224 HKT)
No Englishman has won the EPL title in over 20 years, while a leading manager reveals that English coaches are now "not respected abroad."
May 13, 2013 -- Updated 0933 GMT (1733 HKT)
Football supporters demonstrate in front of Italian TV RAI after the match between A.C.Milan and Lazio Roma was cancelled 11 November 2007. The spectre of football violence resurged in Italy on Sunday as the shooting dead of a fan sparked nationwide disturbances which forced the suspension of several Serie A matches. Banner reads 'Racism can stop League but death of tifosi has no signification.
Hardcore Italian football "ultra" Federico is a Lazio supporter who happily admits directing monkey chants at black players.
March 5, 2013 -- Updated 1123 GMT (1923 HKT)
When Jupp Heynckes made his Bundesliga debut as a player in 1965, the name of Bayern Munich was a new one for the nascent German league.
February 19, 2013 -- Updated 1902 GMT (0302 HKT)
Football's world governing body FIFA has confirmed it will use goal-line technology at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
February 19, 2013 -- Updated 1403 GMT (2203 HKT)
Match-fixing has become a worldwide issue, with hundreds of matches under investigation -- but how do you actually fix a football game?
February 18, 2013 -- Updated 1700 GMT (0100 HKT)
U.S soccer star Robbie Rogers has "come out" as gay on the day he retired from the game, making the announcement on his blog.
February 11, 2013 -- Updated 2231 GMT (0631 HKT)
The wealth of owners like Chelsea's Roman Abramovich often fuels success, but for other clubs such backers prove a mixed blessing.
January 30, 2013 -- Updated 1342 GMT (2142 HKT)
The Secret Footballer reveals the complex issues surrounding racism in the English Premier League.
ADVERTISEMENT