RAMPAGING REDS DASH CITY HOPES
Klopp gains revenge for Cup agony
YOU would always rather have the cup than the revenge but as a response to disappointment, this was still spectacular from Liverpool.
After Sunday’s shootout defeat in the Capital One Cup final, Liverpool would not have relished seeing Manchester City again. This morning, though, everything will not look quite so bad.
For City, this could be the defeat that ends their Barclays Premier League hopes. Other results went their way last night, as they had on Tuesday, so they are still in it. But they were awful here — tired, and lacking in imagination and focus.
Liverpool, though, grew wonderfully into the game after a tepid opening half-hour and there were moments after their third goal in the 57th minute during which they looked as though they may thoroughly embarrass Manuel Pellegrini’s team.
This will do for Jurgen Klopp, though, as he looks to get his team going again. They were good goals, too, the type he must have imagined when he agreed to come here.
The first, a low shot from the excellent Adam Lallana, embarrassed City goalkeeper Joe Hart a little. Maybe Wembley hero Willy Caballero would have saved it. But the two that followed — from James Milner and the Brazilian Firmino — were classic Liverpool goals that arrived on the back of clever passing, hard running and lovely finishing.
It’s strange how fixtures fall sometimes, and this was one both sides would probably wish to have avoided. Nevertheless, there was much at stake. Sunday’s outcome had left Liverpool looking forlorn in ninth place in the Barclays Premier League and needing some momentum going into next Thursday’s Europa League tie with Manchester United.
City, meanwhile, had a title to contest and began this game still on the fringes of contention.
For a while, however, the hangover from Wembley seemed very real at a cold and blustery Anfield. The swirling wind was never going to encourage good football but the weather couldn’t excuse the general sense of lethargy.
Happily for Liverpool, they were to break free from the torpor late in the first half but first we had to sit through half an hour of gentle poking and prodding from two teams who seemingly hadn’t been told that the League Cup final doesn’t signal the end of a season.
City were without Yaya Toure while Liverpool were missing Daniel Sturridge. Former Liverpool forward Raheem Sterling did play, however, and his reception whenever he touched the ball contained even more ill-will than it had at Wembley — or maybe we could just hear it better. Whatever the case, neither Sterling nor the hard-running Sergio Aguero nor the impish David Silva could inspire City early on. The central midfielder Fernandinho did send a header wide from a Silva free-kick in the 12th minute, and the overlapping Pablo Zabaleta stung Simon Mignolet’s palms at the near post 10 minutes later.
Apart from a long-range Sterling shot that drifted shamefully wide just before the half-hour, however, that was about as good as it got for City. Liverpool were not exactly playing inspired football but they were more progressive than their opponents and eventually it paid off.
Only a low Firmino shot from 20 yards had exercised City goalkeeper Hart — it was straight at him, as it happened — before Liverpool took the lead in the 34th minute. Much of Liverpool’s approach play had previously broken down 20 yards or so from goal but when Lallana decided to try his luck from distance, he scored when perhaps even he didn’t really expect to.
Lallana’s shot didn’t even seem to be that well struck as it travelled low to Hart’s left. But the England goalkeeper was either poorly positioned or slow to react, and the ball beat to him low to his left. Suddenly, City were up against it. Goals can, of course, free teams from tension and inhibition and briefly that seemed to be the case with City as they sprang forward with greater focus.
Crucially, though, it was Liverpool who scored the second. Lallana’s back heel played Firmino into space and his pass through to Milner was controlled with one foot and slipped past Hart with the other. It was a super goal and Milner, a former City player, celebrated with a hearty swish of his right fist.
City’s need for an early secondhalf riposte was illustrated by the fact that centre forward Wilfried Bony spent the whole of the interval stripped for action and warming up. Pellegrini’s team had come to Merseyside in need of three points. To lose at this stage of the season, meanwhile, was unthinkable. Bony,
it turned out, was to replace Sterling and that seemed a fair call. The former Liverpool player had endured a poor night.
Liverpool continued to press, though, and it wasn’t long before Hart had to drop sharply to his left to push away a cross shot from Divock Origi after a rash — and failed — attempt at an interception by Nicolas Otamendi opened the door for the Belgian.
As the game progressed, there was always the feeling that City could find a way back if they could just score one. It was Liverpool who were to close the game out, though. A clumsy Otamendi touch was picked up by Jordan Henderson, played to Origi and then Lallana and finished emphatically in front of the Kop by Firmino.