Goals from Gakpo and Salah see Guardiola's side drop to fifth in table
FA Premier League
Saturday 1st December 2024, 16.00 KO
City: Ortega, Walker, Ake, Akanji, Dias, Gundogan, Lewis (Grealish 78), Silva, Nunes (Doku 57), Foden (De Bruyne 78), Haaland
Unused: Carson, Gvardiol, McAtee, O'Reilly, Ederson
Goals:
Booked: Nunes, Foden, Akanji
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
Man of the match: Ake
Manchester City travelled to Liverpool on Sunday afternoon in what was to be a very tough test for Guardiola’s side. Liverpool were in fine form having been comfortably top of the Premier League and Champions League table. Meanwhile, City were struggling, being winless in the past 6 matches, including the loss of a 3-0 lead in 15 minutes midweek to Dutch side Feyenoord. City were without Gvardiol in the starting lineup, who was on the bench. Kevin De Bruyne also remained a substitute. Ederson was also dropped from the XI in place of Stefan Ortega. Ruben Dias returned to the squad after a short period of absence accompanied by Manuel Akanji, Kyle Walker, and Nathan Ake in defence. Ilkay Gundogan started with Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva in midfield with Rico Lewis and Matheus Nunes starting on the wings with Erling Haaland in the striker position.
From the moment the game kicked off, it was immediately apparent that City were going to struggle greatly. Liverpool had came out flying and hungry for goals and the pressure they piled on the Blues led to nervous play. The first major goalscoring chance for Liverpool came within the 6th minute when Dominik Szoboslai’s long range effort was parried away by Ortega.
Just a few moments later in the 11th minute, a Liverpool corner was swung in to Van Dijk who’s header bounced off the post and was momentarily cleared away. Many were left wondering just how exactly Liverpool were not able to score at this moment.
It wouldn’t be long before the first goal came however, as just a minute later the ball found its way to Mohammed Salah, who had acres of space and passed the ball into the near post past all of the City defence and right into the path of Cody Gakpo who poked the ball in to give Liverpool the 1-0 lead.
At this point, it was looking as though the Blues may be in for a very long afternoon indeed, having succumbed early to immense pressure from the Liverpool press. The lead was very nearly doubled in the 19th minute when Van Dijk once again was able to head the ball from a corner but the effort was just inches wide of the post.
City recovered slightly, but were left frustrated in attack as Nunes was booked for a challenge on Trent Alexander Arnold in the 24th minute. Further frustration was caused when Phil Foden received a yellow card for his challenge on Ryan Gravenberch while in attack.
The Blues were finally able to register a shot against the Liverpool goal in the 39th minute when Rico Lewis’ effort went just narrowly wide of the far post, causing more frustration for City. By half time, the score remained 1-0 to Liverpool. Perhaps some relief was felt by the City players as given the domination of Liverpool in the first 20 minutes, this scoreline could’ve been far worse.
Despite time to rethink, City continued to struggle in the second half, finding themselves unable to get a shot on target against a stubborn Liverpool defence.
The game was very nearly put to bed in the 56th minute, when a mistake from Akanji led to Salah being through on goal, but his shot was blazed over the bar. A major let off for City. Changes were made for Guardiola’s side when Jeremy Doku and Savinho came on for Gundogan and Nunes. Doku impressed in attack, but struggled to find a man in the box, with any passes being cleared away.
In the 77th minute, a mistake from Dias leading to Luis Diaz being clean through. Ortega came off his line and caught Diaz, bringing him down in the box and a penalty was given. Salah cleanly slotted the ball away in the far right corner to double Liverpool's advantage and seal the game.
De Bruyne and Jack Grealish came on after the goal but it was too little to late with a chance for De Bruyne in the 83rd minute being closed down by Kelleher after a mistake from Van Dijk.
After 4 minutes of added time, the full time whistle went signalling a 2-0 victory for Liverpool. Manchester City are now winless in 7 matches, losing 6 of them. They will be hoping to end this extended rough patch soon, with the next match against Nottingham Forest on Wednesday evening at home.