Coach Pep Guardiola was extremely excited after Man City equalized in the great battle with Liverpool in the 29th round of the Premier League.
In the 17th minute, Mohamed Salah opened the scoring for Liverpool with a neat fix in the penalty area. However, just 10 minutes later, Man City brought the match back to the starting line with a methodical attack arrangement. Jack Grealish was the one to pass in from the left to Julian Alvarez to cushion the ball into Alisson Becker’s net.
Witnessing Alvarez’s equalizer, coach Guardiola was as happy as cгаzy outside the piste. In a video that went viral on social media, Pep arched his back, punching his hands in the air with extreme joy. At that moment, Liverpool’s reserve players including Joe Matip, Kostas Tsimikas, and Arthur Melo walked over.
Immediately, Guardiola turned to Tsimikas, repeatedly saying something provocative. In response to Pep’s reaction, Tsimikas could only just bow his head and walk away. After that, the Spanish strategist reached out to shake hands with Arthur and was accepted by the player.
Witnessing Guardiola’s somewhat outrageous actions, many Liverpool fans expressed frustration. Even former player Rio Ferdinand felt uncomfortable and he gave an opinion on BT Sport: “That celebration, somehow Tsimikas didn’t push coach Pep Guardiola out of the way”.
Alvarez’s equalizer opened the way for Man City’s impressive comeback against Liverpool. Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, and Jack Grealish then scored to help Man City lead Liverpool 4-1. Almost certainly 3 points have stayed with the Green Man when Liverpool completely crumbled.
Man City ƅҽɑт Liverpool 4-1
Man City is rated higher than Liverpool before the game, but few think the port city team can play so weakly. In the 17th minute, Mohamed Salah gave “The Kop” a dream start when he scored the opening goal from a sharp counter-attack by the visitors. However, this is only the beginning of the nightmare of coach Jurgen Klopp and his students.
Man City almost did not flinch after the early goal. They continued to control the ball and the game. The home team owns up to 65% of the whole game and creates an expected goal index (xG) of up to 2.41. There is no Erling Haaland in the squad because of injury, but Pep shows that Man City still knows how to score and s/m/a/s/h opponents.
Meanwhile, except for Salah’s opening goal, “The Kop” almost suffered and played a deadlock in attack with xG at only 0.26. Julian Alvarez’s equalizer in the 27th minute was so inevitable. Jack Grealish had an assist situation like placing Alvarez with the ball at close range to equalize for the home team. De Bruyne continues to be the trigger. Man City did not falter despite letting the opponent take the lead and exploit the spaces.
At the beginning of the second half, Man City took advantage of the indiscretion of the Liverpool defense to take a 2-1 lead. De Bruyne cushioned the ball easily to make it 2-1 after a horizontal stretch as placed by Mahrez. The home team’s coordination continued to show flexibility and versatility with the De Bruyne – Grealish – Mahrez trio.
In the 53rd and 74th minutes, respectively, Gundogan and Grealish scored two more goals to help Man City close the match with a 4-1 victory. The blue half of Manchester continues to chase Arsenal in the race for the Premier League title and is firmly in second place on the rankings.
Meanwhile, this heavy defeat continues to show the instability of Liverpool. The race to qualify for next season’s Champions League is the only thing that matters to the Anfield team at the moment. However, they are entrenched in 6th place in the rankings with 6 points worse than the 4th place Tottenham.