It was a cold and windy night in the UEFA Europa League on Wednesday (6). Portuguese side Sting came back from a goal down to beat Premier League rivals Manchester City 4-1 at home, stirring up a 60-fold scoring spree. Striker Keokinis scored three goals in a heroic display. Stingers manager Ruben Emolian will officially take charge of Manchester United next Monday (11th). Today's victory over the Red Devils at the home of city rivals Manchester City was the perfect welcome for new United boss Ratcliffe.
The game was initially dominated by City. Phil Cotton scored just four minutes into the game, however, leader Gaudio sent 19-year-old center back Senchenpus on his debut, which sowed the seeds for the subsequent fiasco. By the 38th minute of the game, Jokilis' popularity had skyrocketed as he skillfully overpowered Senchenpus and calmly slotted home to make it 1-1.
Just a minute later, another mistake by Sencenpce was shrugged off by opposing midfielder Max Anaozu, and the Uruguayan international single-handedly doubled the lead. Just three minutes later, City defender Gavadore made another mistake. Fransco Chacao was fouled in the box and the referee awarded a penalty, which Joklis took.
In addition to the City defense's continuous mistakes, the frontline players also made a series of errors. Despite winning a penalty in the 69th minute, Ainin Zalante's penalty hit the crossbar and bounced out. The Blue Moon's counter-attack failed to work and even towards the end of the game, the players made another mistake. Kadamo was awarded a penalty in Mathias Nunes' box and Jokelis scored again to complete his hat-trick.
The 26-year-old Swedish international has scored five goals this year, tying him with Bayern Munich striker Harry Carney for the top spot on the scoring charts, and becoming the second Swedish player in the history of the UEFA Europa League to complete a "hat-trick" after Ibrahim Henry. As the game was Rubin Emolian's last appearance at Sting's home ground, the players threw up their jerseys after the game to pay tribute and bid farewell to the coach.
City have hit a low point since being bloodied 4-0 by Barcelona in October 2016, losing three consecutive fixtures, the first time they have conceded in a single UEFA Europa League match in almost eight years.
