Manchester City surprisingly wins the Premier League top game against Liverpool. Celebrating Guardiola could once again rely on Haaland – but the best player was someone else.
Game number 1,000 as a professional football coach was a very successful one for Pep Guardiola: The Manchester City players gave their coach a well-deserved 3-0 (2-0) win against Liverpool FC for their anniversary on Sunday.
In a one-sided top game on matchday 11 in the English Premier League, Erling Haaland initially missed a penalty (13th) before scoring his 14th league goal (29th). Nico Gonzalez (47th + 2) and the outstanding Jérémy Doku (63rd) scored the other goals.
While City moved within four points of leaders FC Arsenal (2-2 in Sunderland), Liverpool suffered the next setback after more positive results recently and fell back to eighth place. Florian Wirtz was allowed to play 83 minutes, but, like his offensive teammates, remained below his potential.
Florian Wirtz (2nd from right) looks disappointed
Mamardashvilli saves Haaland’s penalty
The “Citizens” got off to a much better start with a 4-1 win against Dortmund in the Champions League. After a good ten minutes, Ibrahima Konaté failed to defend under pressure, so Doku went through on the left. He sprinted past Mamardashvilli, stumbled and fell to the ground. Referee Christopher Kavanagh allowed the game to continue, but after VAR intervention he recognized on the screen that Mamardashvilli had lightly hit Doku on the foot twice.
Haaland took the following penalty and chose a low shot into the right corner. However, Mamardashvilli dived in time and parried strongly.
Haaland is headed and scores
City didn’t let this stop them from clearly dominating the game. The reward came after just under half an hour: after a cross from Matheus Nunes, Haaland headed in to take the lead. Curious: Opponent Konaté was first in the header duel, but the slightly deflected ball still hit Haaland’s forehead in such a way that it flew unstoppably into the right corner of the goal.
Erling Haaland celebrates his goal in the game against Liverpool FC
Liverpool didn’t get going at all offensively, although coach Arne Slot used the same starting eleven that had recently won 1-0 against Real Madrid. Mohamed Salah on the right, Dominik Szoboszlai in the middle and Hugo Ekitiké at the front hardly saw any action. On the left, Wirtz drew at least two fouls with successful dribbling, which resulted in yellow cards for Nico Gonzalez and Bernardo Silva.
Van Dijk’s header goal doesn’t count
A corner almost brought the “Reds” equal: Van Dijk headed into the right corner (38th), but Andrew Robertson was in the offside position in the path. He actively bent down to let the ball pass, so the hit didn’t count.
Instead of a flattering equalizer, the “Citizens” deserved their second goal before the break. He fell from a short corner – which meant Manchester’s first-ever set-piece goal of the season. Gonzalez shot 18 meters from goal and was lucky that van Dijk made an unstoppable deflection.
Documentary crowns his achievement
Manchester survived a phase of pressure from Liverpool unscathed after the break before the best player in the game made the preliminary decision: Doku once again made space for himself with an explosive start and scored a remarkable shot from 18 meters into the right corner. The 23-year-old Belgian played his 100th competitive game for the Citizens – it was certainly one of his best.
Jeremy Doku (l.) celebrates his goal in the game against Liverpool FC
At least Liverpool didn’t give up and created a few good chances. The bottom line was a disappointing performance and a deserved defeat.