Guardiola’s team reacted to Salah’s initial lead with goals from Alvarez, De Bruyne, Gundogan and Grealish. The Reds are moving further and further away from the Champions League area
Exaggerated. City flex their muscles in a sensational 4-1 comeback against Liverpool, torn apart after unlocking with Salah and reduced to a minimum as has happened to Klopp’s team too many times this season at the end of the empire. City flexes its muscles above all to Arsenal, to whom it sends an unequivocal message for the race for the Premier League: the title may even escape, but Guardiola’s team has no intention of abdicating without a fight. Manchester’s blue side dominates the former battle of Britain even with Erling Haaland sitting in the stands applauding his teammates: without him City lose a man of 28 goals in 26 league games, but there’s none on the pitch no one noticed because Guardiola’s team is much more than his formidable center forward. And Etihad is partying so much against its rival of the last 5 years that he sings to Jürgen Klopp that he will be “exonerated in the morning”.
THE KEYS
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The man of the match is the only one of City’s 5 amazing strikers not to score. Riyad Mahrez on the right was an unstoppable arrow that shredded Andrew Robertson, abused the Liverpool defense and put his hand on his first three goals. Also thanks to him and his ability to make a difference every time there is a great game, Guardiola’s team destroyed the Reds especially on the outside, with Jack Grealish on the other side another great protagonist well beyond the 4 minute goal -1. Julián Alvarez replaced Haaland worthily by signing the goal that equalized Salah’s opening goal in the 27th minute and inspiring the next two goals with movement and danger in the area. Kevin De Bruyne is back to preaching football, with the icing on the cake represented by the 2-1 goal scored 53 seconds into the second half. Ilkay Gündogan did the same, author of three of a kind and a game in which he was more creative than a pedaler in the middle of the field. City confirmed that they are an extraordinary collective, capable of exalting themselves in Guardiola’s 4-3-3 hybrid formation, with John Stones once again an excellent performer in the role of full-back/midfielder who changes City’s formation into a 3 -2-4-1. Liverpool, who had deluded themselves with the opening goal scored in the 17th minute by Mo Salah (he scored in all 4 seasonal matches against the Citizens) slowly foundered, taking on water after De Bruyne’s shot at the start of the second half and drowning without finding the way to start swimming again. Alisson, despite the 4 goals conceded, is the only one to save himself from a sensational fiasco that costs the second consecutive stop in the league: qualification for the 2023-24 Champions League, so fundamental for the restructuring plan on which Klopp worked during the break , playing like this will not come for sure
THE MATCH
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City dominated in the first quarter of an hour, but it was Liverpool who got through. In the 17th minute Jota sprinted to the edge of offside, he was stopped in the area by Akanji but managed to touch back where Salah placed the ball behind Ederson. Guardiola’s team got back to playing their game and equalized in the 27th minute with splendid action from one side of the pitch to the other, closed with an assist from Grealish that Alvarez touched behind Alisson. It went to the break at 1-1, at the end of a nice and nervous first half, it started again at 2-1, given that it took De Bruyne 53 seconds to find the goal, thanks to a nice cross from the right by Mahrez. In the 53rd minute, the Algerian also had a hand in the trio: with yet another escape to the right, Alvarez needed a great ball in the middle, whose shot was blocked by Alexander-Arnold on Gündogan’s feet. The match is practically already over when Grealish takes away the well-deserved satisfaction of signing the final 4-1 in the 74th minute.
April 1, 2023 (change April 1, 2023 | 3:57 pm)
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