A few minutes later, the fast-paced initial phase had its next highlight. The City defense didn’t get the ball cleared cleanly and then Liverpool played it quickly and directly: Andrew Robertson crossed from the left to the second post, Trent Alexander-Arnold put it back in an exemplary manner and Jota used it from a central position to equalize.
City stronger and with a lot of speed
Both teams were on the gas pedal, especially the hosts of Guardiola always looked for the direct way forward and hardly gave the Reds a breather. Because Manchester City were playing better overall and had more chances, Jesus’ renewed lead shortly before the break was well deserved: After a perfect cross from Joao Cancelo’s half field, the attacker started at exactly the right moment and elegantly overcame Alisson with the inside (37th minute). .). It could have been clearer.
Mané scores right after the break
This lead didn’t last long, however, because not a minute was played in the second half when Mohamed Salah’s birthday boy Mané skilfully eluded the City defense and scored Liverpool’s second equalizer of the day. And suddenly Jürgen Klopp’s team was on top: Ederson parried an Jota shot from twelve meters and prevented the 2: 3 (53rd). After a few minutes of pressure from Liverpool, however, the hosts recovered and took control of the game. In the 63rd minute, a goal from Sterling went unacknowledged because the attacker was obviously a few millimeters offside.
In the final phase, both teams then had to visibly pay tribute to the high pace, the passes became less precise, the tackles came too late one or the other time and in the end a goal was not scored. Riyad Mahrez should have scored the winning goal for the hosts seconds before the final whistle. Although Liverpool failed to take the lead in the table, the Reds can probably live with the shared points better than the Guardiola team.