RevSportz Comment
Despite seeing an Erling Haaland penalty superbly saved by Giorgi Mamardashvili, Pep Guardiola’s 1000th game as a manager/coach ended in a resounding 3-0 victory over Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium. Jeremy Doku, whose quick feet had won the penalty, was the star of the show and he killed off any hopes of a Liverpool comeback with a stunning curled finish from outside the box in the 63rd minute.
Liverpool, whose title defence is all but over following a fifth defeat in 11 games, will look back ruefully on a Virgil van Dijk header from a Mo Salah corner that was disallowed because of Andy Robertson standing in an offside position. It’s highly unlikely that Gianluigi Donnarumma in the City goal would have saved it, but VAR ruled that Robertson was interfering with play.
Haaland had dusted himself off from the penalty miss and given City the lead in the 29th minute with a towering header into the far corner from a Matheus Nunes cross, and after the van Dijk header was chalked off, Liverpool’s captain suffered the mortification of seeing a long-range strike from Nico Gonzalez deflect in off his shin.
With Florian Wirtz once again disappointing and Hugo Ekitike getting little service up front, Liverpool created little of note. Dominic Szoboszlai had their only shot on target late on – a thunderbolt that Donnarumma saved at full stretch – and Salah put a great chance just wide of the post, but Arne Slot’s team were well beaten with the fit-again Alexander Isak watching on from the bench.
For Guardiola, it was a 716th win, a quite incredible success rate, and more than half those victories (388) have now come with City. On this evidence, there will be many more. With Arsenal slipping up at Sunderland earlier this weekend, City now lurk just four points behind.
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