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Here’s your report from Portman Road, which concludes this afternoon’s minute-by-minute. It was a rout, if ever there was one. A case of Tractor Boys against men. Goodnight.
Foden speaks to Sky Sports after the game. “One of our best performances this year,” he says.
On his and City’s return to form, he adds: “Keeping players fit has been key, we’re in better shape and we’re building momentum. It’s good to see me back with a smile on my face and enjoying my football. It’s all seemed to change for me in front of goal, I think I’ve been unlucky before this.”
Foden shrugs and says “you never know what could happen” with regards to City’s outside chances of securing another title.
For the stats heads.
Ipswich (0.80) 0-6 (3.05) Man City
— The xG Philosophy (@xGPhilosophy) January 19, 2025
An update from on the continent:
“10 more years, 10 more years, Erling Haaland,” the City fans chant as the players parade around the turf after the final whistle.
The Norwegian was, in truth, a bit-part in this victory. It was truly an ensemble effort – as Guardiola will surely attest when he’s interviewed.
FT: Ipswich 0-6 Manchester City
Ipswich Town have today been dealt a brutal reminder of how difficult the Premier League can be. Manchester City’s recent slump means they are surely out of the title running this season but they’ve played like reigning champions this afternoon, with Phil Foden, Kevin de Bruyne and Jeremy Doku running riot in East Anglia. It was six and it could have been more.
City will gain huge confidence from this – it seems like they’re back to their best, or somewhere near it – and they jump into fourth place.
Ipswich will hope to quickly forget and move on.
Mercifully, the officials have seen fit to add on just three minutes at the end of this game.
The camera pans to player of the match Phil Foden, who wears a big white smile as he sits in the City dugout.
87 min: Football is much better for the neutrals when there’s some jeopardy involved, isn’t it?
85 min: City continue to pass, pass, pass. Ipswich continue to look at the clock in the vain hope it would tick along a little faster.
82 min: Normal service has resumed and it’s City probing for the next goal. McAtee has really impressed since coming on, getting his first City goal in the process, and he now looks like a genuine option for Guardiola for the rest of the campaign.
80 min: Into the final 10 minutes and this now feels like an exercise as to whether Ipswich can spoil Ederson’s clean sheet. City could well get a seventh or an eighth, but I reckon Guardiola would value a clean sheet even more.
KDB = still the master.
78 min: Ipswich are threatening a goal here. Davis has been good going forward – albeit at a major cost going the other way – while Philogene has shown some tidy footwork since his introduction.
Goals number 4 and 5 for UK viewers here:
75 min: I suspect the final 15 minutes of this contest will be procession-like. Still, the Ipswich fans are finally making a bit of defiant noise in support of their beleaguered side.
Next up for McKenna’s mob? Liverpool away.
73 min: More changes for City, as Kovacic and Akanji are replaced by two more youngsters. One of them is the familiar face of Rico Lewis and the other is the rookie Nico O’Reilly.
Liam Delap is removed for Ipswich. It hasn’t quite been the afternoon he was planning against his former club.
72 min: City are inadvertently doing Manchester United a favour by running in so many goals against their relegation rivals …
70 min: Have Ipswich been naive? Jeremy Boyce has some thoughts on email.
Sorry, but I feared for them and thought they were doomed to failure when they secured their automatic promotion slot. Too high too fast. It’s not the old days (Alf Ramsey) any more. It’s the big hard reality of playing in the big boys’ playground. Altitude sickness? The bends? You can’t come up that quickly from so far down without suffering some effects. Hats off, they’ve tried to carry on playing their nice footie, but…[] they need to get street-wise and sharpish if they’re going to save their season and not suffer a similar fate as many other worthy but ultimately doomed campaigns by other teams in the distant and not-so past.
GOAL! Ipswich 0-6 Manchester City (McAtee, 68)
It’s six! McAtee ghosts into the box and flicks a deft header over Walton after a delightful lofted ball by Kovacic.
Ipswich’s players are starting to argue among themselves.
67 min: Divin Mubama played a handful of games for West Ham last season before his move to Manchester. But this is his Premier League debut in City colours and well deserved too after a goal against Salford in the FA Cup last weekend.
There’s no doubt Guardiola is thinking about the upcoming Champions League clash at Paris Saint-Germain with those changes. City are in a precarious position in the new-look European group phase. So too are PSG, which should make for a cracking game between two of football’s oil states superpowers.
64 min: City have made a triple change.
Off come Foden, Haaland and De Bruyne, with Grealish, James McAtee and Divin Mubama on.
For Ipswich, Clarke, Cajuste and Godfrey are removed, with Philogene, Luongo and Tuanzebe – the latter a former Manchester United man, of course – introduced.
A more competitive game involving Manchester United and Manchester City today will surely come in the WSL. Follow it here.
62 min: A corner to Ipswich. Can they get any respite here?
No, it’s easily cleared by City.
61 min: Both teams are preparing changes and they cannot come soon enough for the home side, whose players look either shellshocked or just pain fatigued. Football is a game of the head as much as the body and when the mind lapses, everything else goes too.
Poor old Jack Clarke. He hid his face with his shirt after making that mistake. Ipswich have given a couple of really soft goals away today.
Haaland and De Bruyne both see shots go close as City chase a sixth and the home side are at sixes and sevens… the scoreline could surpass those numbers. It could be a cricket score.
GOAL! Ipswich 0-5 Manchester City (Haaland, 57)
Clarke gives it away cheaply and there indeed is the goal for Haaland. It had to come! Doku selflessly fed the striker and he was never ever going to miss, lifting it slightly to ensure Walton was beaten.
54 min: Haaland chases down Godfrey and earns his team a corner. The Norwegian has been deprived of chances so far this afternoon … that might not last long, though.
53 min: Gundogan tries to thread one through for De Bruyne, who is forced slightly wide and can’t work a crossing angle. City keep it alive though and they’re penning Ipswich in here.
51 min: Have Ipswich been naive or is this just City strutting their best football again? The classic (and correct) answer is… a bit of both, for me Clive.
GOAL! Ipswich 0-4 Manchester City (Doku, 49)
But then, quick as a flash, Doku sprints down the left and arrows home a fourth! He jinked through a couple of defenders and his shot was deflected, ever so slightly, past Walton and into the corner. Game, set, match.
49 min: You might presume it would be all about damage limitation for Ipswich after that first half, but the bravery and boldness in possession continues – and leads to a decent chance for Ben Johnson after it’s worked to the right wing-back. Ederson saves his low shot.
47 min: There’s been 32 goals and counting this Premier League weekend, with a game and a half to play. Everyone loves goals.
46 min: Straight away, City are on the front foot, with De Bruyne storming down the inside-left channel. He’s been somewhere near his best again today – he shows little sign of slowing down.
We’re back under way for the second half. I have no idea what score we’ll end up on this afternoon.
Can anyone think of an Ed Sheeran song to sum up that Ipswich first half? I’m sure Kieran McKenna has done some Thinking Out Loud in the dressing room at half-time.
Who has got Phil Foden in their Fantasy Football team? Nope, me neither. A few might be transferring him in after this. In full flight, he’s some footballer.
HALF TIME
Ipswich 0-3 Manchester City at the break. Eeesh, that wasn’t quite the close encounter that some were predicting, was it? City look to have regained much of their old attacking swagger, while Ipswich have lacked authority and organisation at the back. They’ve been shred to ribbons by the brilliant Phil Foden.
A huge gulf in class, in all truth.
We’re now into one minute of first half added time. City are hunting for more goals.
44 min: City are threatening a fourth before half-time … it really could get brutal for the home side if they continue in this vein. Foden cannot find Haaland as another attack opens up and the Ipswich back five parts.
GOAL! Ipswich 0-3 Manchester City (Foden, 42)
Goodness me that was just so easy. De Bruyne to Foden, 3-0. City at their slickest.
That’s three goal involvements for Foden already this afternoon – and four goals in his last one-and-a-half matches.
39 min: Is this now a formality, or can Ipswich still make it interesting? After City saw a 2-0 lead at Brentford evaporate in midweek, a goal might make them nervous.
37 min: Gvardiol robs Hutchinson of possession and then storms forward and sweeps it to the other flank for Foden, who in turn finds De Bruyne on the edge of the area. The shot is just over from the Belgian.
Phil Foden + 1G +1A
34 min: A few grumbles reverberate around Portman Road, largely directed at the referee, Samuel Barrott, who has let a couple of potential City fouls slide. This Ipswich crowd won’t turn on their own players or manager, that’s for sure.
Ipswich now have the proverbial mountain to climb. This hasn’t been vintage City under Pep Guardiola, but it’s been far more like the team that have dominated the Premier League in recent years. Ipswich will rue a couple of major lapses in concentration.
“Down with United,” is the new taunt from City to both Ipswich and their hometown rivals.
GOAL! Ipswich 0-2 Manchester City (Kovacic, 30)
Bang, bang, one, two! Kovacic thumps it into the bottom corner.
Ipswich stood off City, allowing Foden to work the extra pass to the Croatian, who was waiting on the edge of the area ready to drill it home. Emphatic stuff.
29 min: That’s a big blow for Ipswich, who had been holding their own. City made a good couple of minutes’ possession count. Foden is certainly back in form for his club now, after a very slow start to the season.
GOAL! Ipswich 0-1 Manchester City (Foden, 27)
Foden turns it in after a patient City move!
It had been another period of probing for City with Doku seeing plenty of the ball and drawing markers, releasing De Bruyne. The Belgian’s cross found Foden who guided it into the bottom corner on the spin.