Jamie Redknapp believes Manchester City were 'incredibly lucky' not to have thrown away a three-goal lead in their 3-1 Premier League win over Leicester City on Saturday.
City took an early lead at the Etihad when John Stones fired in a brilliant volley, before two goals inside 12 minutes for Erling Haaland put the Blues in a commanding position. The Norwegian first scored from the spot after Wilfred Ndidi handled Jack Grealish's cross, before latching onto Kevin De Bruyne's inch-perfect through ball to dink over Daniel Iversen.
The goalscoring pair were both brought off at half-time, with Pep Guardiola evidently having one eye on Wednesday's Champions League quarter-final second leg against Bayern Munich. The City boss also took off Rodri, De Bryne and Grealish early in the second half.
RATINGS: Stones and Grealish shine in Leicester win
But with the rhythm disrupted, Kelechi Iheanacho pulled one back for Leicester. That was enough for the Foxes to gain some confidence, with the former Blues striker coming close twice more and James Maddison squandering a great chance at making the final minutes more nervy than they had to be.
"It could have backfired horrendously for Manchester City, when you think he’s taking off the likes of Kevin de Bruyne, Rodri, Grealish, Haaland," Redknapp said, speaking to Sky Sports after the full-time whistle. "Then it goes to 3-1, Maddison has a great chance, Iheanacho has a chance as well, they’re obviously right in the game and Man City had no answer for it.
"They got away with it, they absolutely got away with it today and it was one of those where of course you’re trying to make changes, you’re trying to protect players because you’ve got so many big games coming up, but they were incredibly lucky today.
"From Leicester’s point of view they'll look at it like okay, it was 3-1, I’m sure at half-time Dean Smith would have signed for that, my goodness, he’s probably thinking we can get done six here. But, when you see the changes, goals, momentum and everything starts to go against you for Manchester City, Dean Smith can turn that into a positive although I think it was almost self-inflicted by Manchester City with the changes that Pep Guardiola made."
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