It wasn’t the prettiest of performances, but the Reds came through in the end. Liverpool overcame all the odds, and Erling Haaland, to defeat the reigning champions, Manchester City, 1-0 and get their season back on track.
This Liverpool team may not be able to press the Manchester City attack to death like they have last four years, but they can still rise to the occasion when the moment is brightest. Ditching the 4-2-3-1 pressing formation that got them nowhere against Arsenal and Brighton, Jurgen Klopp executed another masterclass in how to thwart Manchester City as he did the unthinkable: he abandoned the press.
Yes, Jurgen Klopp committed a sacrilegious offense by allowing City to have the ball without too much pressure in their own end as Liverpool sat back and only pressed once City enter their half. And, obviously, it worked like a charm as Liverpool had all of the early chances.
Andy Robertson nearly blasted a rocket past Ederson into the top corner in the first half, while Diogo Jota had an aggressive header stopped on the goal line by the City keeper. Like I said, City had much of the possession and ball control, but it was Liverpool who had all of the emphasis.
Whenever City would make a mistake, Liverpool pounced and sliced the ball through their defenders as they generated chance after chance.
The even nearly scored on the 50′ mark through Mo Salah. The move started from Liverpool’s box, with Virgil Van Dijk cutting out a De Bruyne backheel to end the City rush. In the blink of an eye, the ball was transitioned from the 18-yard box to midfield, where Robert Firmino took control of it and sent Mo Salah in on goal with a delightful through ball.
Unfortunately, for all of the Liverpool fans, Mo Salah let the nerve of the roaring Kop get the better of him as he sent the ball wide of Ederson’s goal, allowing every City fan and player to breathe a sigh of relief.
Even though City were toasted on this play, they seemingly didn’t learn their lesson later on as this chance foreshadowed what was to come.
Anyway, before the winning goal happened, City actually took the lead through Phil Foden and Erling Haaland. After getting sent in on goal by KDB, Haaland forcefully stripped the ball out of the hands of a diving Alisson. The ball ricochet off Haaland and landed at the feet of Foden, who banked a shot off Joe Gomez and into the back of the net to silence Anfield and put the reigning champions up 1-0.
Or so City thought.
The referee was called to the sideline monitor by VAR as Haaland had actually pulled Fabinho down earlier on in the possession, which was deemed important enough to the contribution of the goal. Within twenty seconds of looking at the monitor, the ref overturned the goal and sent Pep Guardiola and the City bench into an uproar.
To be honest, it was a foul by Haaland, but I don’t think it was vital enough to overturn the goal. Liverpool had at least three chances to stop the break (1. when the ball was passed by KDB to Haaland, 2. Allisson not holding onto the ball when he rushed out, and 3. When Foden shot it off Joe Gomez, which deflected into the net), but didn’t.
I would have been just as angry if I was in Pep’s position as the City manager was on the sideline.
I’m surprised he didn’t get a yellow as he was waving his hand around and disrespecting the referee without care.
Nonetheless, the game kind of chilled out after that as City kept possession of the ball and probed the Liverpool defense to no avail. Liverpool nearly scored through Diogo Jota’s header off the post, but that was the only chance until Liverpool actually scored.
On the 75′, Alisson learned from his mistake on the Foden no-goal as he collected a KDB free kick, and then instantly booted the ball as far as he could as he saw Mo Salah breaking behind the City defense. Somehow, Joao Cancelo, the only City player back, completely missed the ball as it was in midair and then fell down, thus giving Salah a clear path on goal.
Just like his goalkeeper, Salah learned from his earlier miss as he dashed down the field, settled his nerves, and beat an onrushing Ederson to put Liverpool up 1-0 with a quarter of an hour left.
Even when I was looking back at the goal, it still baffles me how Cancelo mis-controlled the punt. Why did he lunge so far forward to stop it IN MID AIR, even though Salah was literally next to him? And how was that ever going to work out for him, even if he controlled the ball? Salah would have just stolen it from him.
He should have just let it bounce once and then headed back to the City players ahead of him.
Nevertheless, City threw bodies forward for the final fifteen minutes, but it was all for naught. Liverpool’s defense held, which is unusual these days, and the Reds took all three points.
I still don’t believe that Liverpool can get back into this title race as City are a full ten points ahead of them, but the Top-4 is definitely possible. Newcastle is not strong enough to mount a full 38-game Champions League push, while Manchester United and Chelsea are too inconsistent to stay in the Top-4 all season long.
With Liverpool now only one point behind Newcastle, three points behind United, and six points behind Chelsea, 4th place is there’s for the taking.
As for Man City, this loss really hurts. Not only have they dropped points to their fiercest rivals (in terms of competing for major trophies) in the last half decade, but now they are four points behind Arsenal for 1st place.
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