Huddersfield Town can hold heads high after limiting Manchester City

Pep Guardiola’s side left the Accu Stadium with a two-goal win, but Lee Grant’s players earned plenty of credit for their collective effort

Huddersfield Town got exactly the game they expected and did themselves no disgrace. City were kept to just a single goal in either half despite dominating both possession and territory.

In the end, Town were undone by two brilliant moves. The first goal was the result of a quick one-two between Phil Foden and Divine Mukasa. Savinho claimed the second after a penalty box scramble broke Foden’s way. Both finishes were unstoppable.

In between those goals, there was plenty to admire about Town’s defending. Their narrow midfield helped squeeze the space outside the box, the full-backs limited their respective wingers, the centre-backs blocked almost everything that arrived in the penalty area, and Lee Nicholls produced an excellent one-v-one stop to keep Town in the game — at least as it stood at the time.

Pep Guardiola admitted afterwards that he hadn’t expected Lee Grant’s change of shape to a 5-4-1 out of possession, but it worked as much as could reasonably have been expected. There will be Premier League sides this season that would be proud of a performance like that.

After poor defensive performances against fellow League One sides this season, it was reassuring to see the collective effort Town displayed to keep City relatively quiet. Guardiola’s side recorded a lower expected goals (1.17) than Barnsley (1.25) or Bradford (1.96) managed against Town this season. They notched up a lower actual goal tally as well, for that matter.