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Scoreline: Manchester City 1-2 Liverpool
Goalscorers: Gabriel Jesus 2'; Mohamed Salah 56' Roberto Firmino 77'
The cloak of infallibility has been perforated and City have been brought back to the ground, once again thanks to the undeniable tenacity of the Liverpool Fab 3.
After conceding a goal as early as the 2nd minute, Liverpool had every reason to be worried and to stay on their toes for the rest of the 90 minutes. Though they soaked up the pressure in the first half and just about got through thanks to some controversial refereeing and good fortune, they hit Manchester City hard in the second half with 2 sweetly taken goals that will go down in the history books.
Without wasting another moment, let's take a look at the 3 things Manchester City got wrong against Liverpool.
#3 Manchester City came out swinging but let their emotions get the better of them
The Etihad, jokingly referred to as the 'Emptihad' proved to be anything but and brought the noise to the party to try and buoy City across the finishing line. And that seemed to work initially as Guardiola's men capitalized on the poor judgment of Virgil Van Dijk and hit Liverpool with a swift counter to open the scoring on the night.
It looked like plenty were going to follow but City found it hard to break down a loaded Liverpool defence. And their night took a turn for the worse when Leroy Sane's goal was confusingly disallowed as he got flagged offside. Replays revealed that the ball had come off James Milner and even then Trent Alexander-Arnold was playing Leroy Sane onside.
City should have just kept their heads and kicked on but they let their emotions get the better of them and Guardiola's remonstration at the ref had him sent off to the stands. It was as though the narrative just took a U-turn and City were falling victims to inertia. And with that City saw their chances dwindling to a trickle and some poor defending led to them conceding the 2nd Liverpool goal of the night.
#2 Manchester City fail to carry the momentum into the second half again
Manchester City, just like on derby day against Manchester United, came out guns blazing and all set to hit the opposition from every angle. They were rampant in the first half as they piled on the pressure and kept the tension up in the final third.
When Jesus scored in the 2nd minute, it looked like the script was written in City's favour. And their subsequent dominance pointed in that direction. However, the second half was a completely different story yet again.
Guardiola's men do not seem to have learned from their mistakes from the weekend match against United as they once again let go of the control once the second half started rolling. It was indeed desperate times and Manchester City had to commit men forward but their defenders couldn't keep their heads with Otamendi being at fault for the goal that won Liverpool the game.
Manchester City's defence has weaknesses and they seem to crumble when tested relentlessly. This is exactly what the first-half smash-and-grab at Anfield last week and Manchester United's swift comeback in the second half at Etihad on Saturday reiterates. If the City players, both in attack and in defence, can't keep their heads and not let the occasion get the better of them, their anticlimactic end to this campaign could suffer even more.
#1 Over-reliance on Sane as an attacking outlet cost Manchester City dearly
Liverpool knew the longer they kept City from getting the second goal, the greater the chances of hitting them on the break and pulling one back. They overloaded the centre and forced Kevin De Bruyne and Fernandinho to constantly go wide.
David Silva was often found operating on the left wing alongside Leroy Sane after being starved of space in the centre. However, Sane, who had struggled against Trent Alexander-Arnold in the first leg at Anfield, looked out of sorts once again today.
The German was caught offside far too many times and if he had the patience to hold his runs a little while longer, City could have had one or maybe even two more goals.
Sane's crossing was uncharacteristically off the mark and often delivered balls too close to Loris Karius and even with Manchester City committing plenty of bodies forward, he couldn't come up with anything of note from the left wing.
He was unfortunate to have been denied a goal though. But Manchester City have quite a few questions to ask themselves because all may not be as rosy as it may have seemed just about a week back and there are 3 back to back defeats to show for it.
