Manchester City 1 Liverpool 2 (aggregate: 1-5, Liverpool go through)
In the away end, there were songs about winning the European Cup and, this being Liverpool, thousands of euphoric voices joining in with the follow-up shout of “again”. And why not? Liverpool had survived the thunderstorm, as Jürgen Klopp had put it, and at the end of this epic tussle it was a sunrise of a smile on the German’s face. His team were in the semi-finals and Manchester City, once again, will have to wait for another year.
Pep Guardiola’s team gave everything. They chased every ball, attacked from every angle and when Gabriel Jesus put them ahead inside the opening two minutes their supporters must have dared to think it was on. Ultimately, though, too much damage was inflicted by Liverpool’s 3-0 first-leg victory.
Mohamed Salah drew Liverpool level on the night, a goal that meant City needed another four and, realistically, it was never going to happen. Roberto Firmino added a second for Liverpool in the 76th minute and the two teams were going through the motions for the remainder of the night.
Liverpool will reflect they got lucky with Leroy Sané’s disallowed goal when the score was 1-0 – an incident that led to Pep Guardiola being sent to the stands at half-time – but over the two legs there can be no doubt Klopp’s team deserved to go through. City put in a heroic effort throughout the first half – but no team can defend as they did and expect to get away with it.
They certainly began like a team in a hurry. Liverpool were vulnerable from the moment Virgil van Dijk was dragged out to the left touchline, under pressure from Raheem Sterling, and his attempt to clear the ball was intercepted by Bernardo Silva. Van Dijk was knocked off balance in the process but his appeals for a free-kick were futile. Instead, Sterling was free if Fernandinho could pick him out with the correct pass. It was measured beautifully and Sterling squared for Jesus to guide a first-time shot past Loris Karius. The goal was clocked at 117 seconds and the Etihad was suddenly overdosing on optimism.
Within a quarter of an hour Mohamed Salah, of all people, could be seen fumbling his control to run the ball out of play. It would be exaggerating to say Liverpool were rattled but they did need to catch their breath and City were merciless in that respect. If the ball was out of play, someone in blue would run to get it back. If the ball-boy was dawdling, the crowd would roar for more urgency. The pressure was relentless and, in those moments, didn’t it feel ridiculous that so much of the pre-match talk had been focused on how damaged City might be, psychologically, after their previous two results? This was not a side licking its wounds from the humbling of Anfield or still feeling the after-effects of Saturday’s ordeal against Manchester United. It was the best football team in England with the adrenaline running through their veins, playing like they thought anything was achievable.
To put it into context, the first half here was even more one-sided than it had been in Liverpool’s favour at Anfield last week. The difference, of course, is that Liverpool scored three in a 19-minute blitz whereas City found it harder to turn their early superiority into the hard currency of goals. Bernardo Silva could scarcely have come much closer with the left-foot shot that crashed off Karius’s right-hand post and Guardiola’s dismissal was sparked by a trigger-happy linesman ruling out a perfectly legitimate goal shortly before half-time because of a mistaken offside call against Sané. It was true that Sané would have been offside if the ball had been played to him by a team-mate. In this case, however, Karius had punched a cross against James Milner and when Sané turned in the loose ball the goal should have stood. It was a huge let-off for Liverpool and a grievous setback for the home side.
Guardiola was enraged and went on to the pitch at half-time to remonstrate with the Spanish referee, Antonio Mateu Lahoz, while also making sure his players did not talk themselves into trouble. City’s manager was entitled to be aggrieved because, at this level, it was pretty wretched that neither the referee nor the linesman realised their mistake. Yet he went too far with his eyeballing and matador-like hand movements. Lahoz pointed to the stands and then summoned Mikel Arteta, one of Guardiola’s coaches, to make sure the message was understood.
All the same, Guardiola’s players must still have felt reasonably encouraged at half-time. Sterling’s speed and directness, driving through the middle, made him a constant menace against his old club. Liverpool did not manage a shot until the 41st minute and City still had Sergio Agüero, the club’s record scorer, to summon from the bench.
Yet City were taking a calculated gamble fielding such an experimental three-man defence. When Kyle Walker and Aymeric Laporte doubled up as attacking full-backs Fernandinho would drop back to keep Nicolás Otamendi company. Otherwise, Guardiola’s entire line-up was filled with attacking players and that always had the potential for danger against such a brilliantly effective counter-attacking side.
Sure enough, the killer moment arrived in the 56th minute. Salah’s through ball gave Sadio Mané the first chance and for a split second it seemed as though Fernandinho was in danger of conceding a penalty. Salah did not wait for the referee’s decision. He was on the ball in a flash, taking it around Ederson and then shaping his body for a tricky angled finish. He was an island of composure and his expertly placed shot arched over Otamendi, the nearest defender, before dropping into an exposed net.
Firmino’s goal was a precise finish, in off the post, from a misplaced pass from the accident-prone Otamendi and that was it. – Guardian service
