Fa Cup, Manchester City-Liverpool 2-3, Reds in the semifinals

Liverpool, with a remarkable first half, deliver three thunderous slaps to rivals City, hold off their proud final comeback and fly to the FA Cup final (3-2 at Etihad). Just six days after the wonderful two equal in the Premier, the Reds dominate Guardiola’s men, physically and mentally on the ground after the many, too many toxins left on the ground of the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid.

SEVEN CHANGES

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There are seven changes in the starting eleven of both teams compared to the Champions League commitments. While Liverpool field the best, with Diaz preferred forward to the battered Jota and Mané deployed from central striker, Guardiola is forced to experiment. The Battle of Madrid left people wounded, bruised and exhausted. And so Walker is absent, De Bruyne recovers only for the bench, Rodri, Laporte and Mahrez take a breath. City show off their front-wheel drive version with Jesus and Foden on the flanks, Sterling and Grealish as center forwards. The left side of the defense – Aké and Zinchenko – appears all too tender, however. The minute of silence in memory of the 97 Liverpool fans who died thirty-three years ago in Hillsborough is prematurely interrupted by Mr. Oliver for the hostile chants of some supporters of the City. The Mancunian company then apologized for what had happened.

sprint reds

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The Citizens start playing too much in their attempts to restart from the bottom and Klopp’s eleven takes advantage of it. City did not study the firm ball patterns used by the Reds with Benfica. On two occasions Konatè was on the corner to punish Vlachodimos. And at Wembley the Franco-Malian is repeated: Robertson’s joke is practically perfect, Aké dozes and the impact between Konatè’s head and ball is as devastating as it is winning. It is the nineteenth goal scored by Liverpool this season from a corner and the cup goalkeeper, the American Steffen, has not too many faults. The same cannot be said eight minutes later. The City continues with the back passes, Stones leans on Steffen, the twenty-seven year old cincischia and Mané’s slip punishes him, catching him totally unprepared.

MANÈ is there, the CITY is not

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City try to sketch a comeback attempt, but seem short of ideas and heavy legs. Instead, it is Liverpool that pass again: the Reds try to penetrate on the left, then Thiago and Alexander-Arnold move the attack towards the center and, on the opposite side, Mané uses the assist of the Spaniard to pierce with a wonderful conclusion on the fly. Steffen.

pep wakes his parents

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The second half is a completely different music, obviously Guardiola’s voice made itself heard in the Wembley locker room. The Catalan also reverses the positions of Foden and Grealish, with the former Villa on the left and the number 47 for central streets. Ready go and Jesus gets free on the center-right before serving Grealish the ball of one to three. Guardiola’s team believes in it: Jesus is particularly lively and on two occasions calls Alisson at the exit and at the detour in the corner. The game heats up and Fernandinho’s bad intervention on Mané, punished with a yellow card, makes a few words fly too many. Salah tries to find the goal he has been missing for more than a month, but on Diaz’s serve and Zinchenko’s mistake it only hits the outside of the net.

CITY, no comeback

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A little surprisingly, Guardiola waits for 83 minutes to make the first change, with Mahrez replacing Jesus. The rush of the Algerian in the 91st minute gives Bernardo the 3-2 goal and his fans the last hopes. The game heats up: Fernandinho and Mahrez’s shots are deflected for a corner and Alisson keeps a good guard on Sterling’s low shot. It is even Firmino who goes close to the poker spot on the other side, but that’s how he ends up. The duel between the two greats of English football is only suspended: in the Premier League they will play until the end and it would not be surprising to see these two teams compete for the Champions League on the evening of May 28 at the Stade de France. Today it is the Reds who rejoice, with the dream of winning a poker of trophies still alive.