Liverpool punish sluggish City
MANCHESTER: Roberto Firmino scored his first Liverpool goal and made two more as Jurgen Klopp’s team stopped Manchester City recapturing the Premier League summit with a brilliant 4-1 away win yesterday. City were bidding to return to first place after being usurped by Leicester City earlier in the day, but they were left in third after a sloppy and unfocused display at the Etihad Stadium culminated in their third defeat of the campaign.
Raheem Sterling, playing against Liverpool for the first time since his acrimonious close-season exit, had been the focus of the pre-match build-up, but it was Firmino, a £29 million ($44.1 million, 41.4 million euros) capture from Hoffenheim, who stole the headlines. The Brazil international created an own goal by Eliaquim Mangala, teed up Philippe Coutinho and scored himself, all inside the first 32 minutes, and although Sergio Aguero marked his return from a seven-game lay-off with a hamstring injury by replying, Martin Skrtel slammed home Liverpool’s fourth late on.
Klopp’s side, beaten 2-1 at home by Crystal Palace in their previous outing, have now won away at Chelsea and City, although they rose just one place in the standings to ninth. Prior to kick-off several Tricolores were held aloft during the playing of the French national anthem, in tribute to the victims of last week’s Paris attacks, and City’s France internationals Bacary Sagna and Eliaquim Mangala were both shown singing along on the stadium’s big screens. The pair could have been forgiven for having their minds elsewhere and that appeared to be the case as a sequence of glaring errors in City’s defence allowed the visitors to take control of the game.
Liverpool went ahead in the seventh minute after Coutinho dispossessed Sagna and found Firmino, whose low cross was inadvertently scuffed in at the near post by the back-pedalling Mangala. City manager Manuel Pellegrini had changed both his centre-backs, Mangala and Martin Demichelis starting in place of Nicolas Otamendi and injured skipper Vincent Kompany, and it was from a mix-up between the two newcomers that Liverpool added a second goal in the 23rd minute. As both players converged on a loose ball, Demichelis contrived to head it past Mangala and Firmino squared for Coutinho to steer a shot between the legs of Joe Hart.
Liverpool were playing with an aggressivity and purpose that has characterised their approach since Klopp’s arrival and they swelled their lead yet further after a sweeping counter-attack. Coutinho initially saw a shot parried by Hart, but an audacious back-heel by Emre Can gave the Brazilian a second bite at the cherry and he rolled square for Firmino to tap home.
Firmino twice went close to compounding City’s misery, first seeing an effort blocked by Hart and then hooking inches wide from Coutinho’s flick. Each misplaced pass from a player in sky blue drew a flurry of invective from the home fans, but shortly before half-time Aguero gave them hope. The Argentine picked up the ball midway inside the Liverpool half, resisted the attentions of Adam Lallana and arced a right-foot shot around Simon Mignolet from 25 yards. Pellegrini took reparative action at halftime, sending on Fabian Delph and Fernandinho for Yaya Toure and Jesus Navas in a bid to go toe-to-toe with Liverpool’s three-man midfield. — AFP WATFORD: Watford captain Troy Deeney experienced the highs and lows of football in quick succession after his stoppage-time own-goal gave Manchester United a 2-1 win at Vicarage Road yesterday. Deeney had powered home an 87th-minute penalty after Marcos Rojo had brought down Odion Ighalo but was left with his head in his hands after deflecting Bastian Schweinsteiger’s effort into the home side’s net. Victory took United to the top of the English Premier League table, although cross-town rivals and previous leaders Manchester City were one of several teams who had the chance to leapfrog them in matches kicking-off later y.
This win also meant Louis van Gaal’s side extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to eight games. “In football you always have 90-93 minutes,” Schweinsteiger told BT Sport. “You always have to believe. There was a bit of luck but we are happy to get the three points,” the Germany midfielder added. United had led early through Memphis Depay before Deeney’s goal ended a record of 10 hours and two minutes without conceding. In common with all Premier League matches this weekend, the French national anthem La Marseillaise was played prior to the kick-off following the Paris terror attacks of November 13. This was well observed although some United supporters sang “Ooh ah Cantona” to the tune, referencing their former French forward Eric Cantona.
United manager van Gaal did not include any out and out forwards in his line-up, with Wayne Rooney absent through illness. That meant Dutch winger Depay led the line, with compatriot van Gaal looking on as his side dominated the opening exchanges. The visitors were ahead with just 11 minutes on the clock when Depay met an exquisite Ander Herrera cross to volley past Heurelho Gomes for his fifth goal of the season. Watford struggled to get out of their own half but United nearly gifted them a way back in with former Vicarage Road favourite Ashley Young, who had been given a good reception before kick-off, losing the ball to Etienne Capoue who in turn fed Ighalo. But the Nigerian took too much time and fired wide.
Van Gaal was forced into an early change as Herrera went off with a suspected hamstring injury to be replaced by Rojo, United switching to a back three in the process. The visitors continued to create chances with Morgan Schneiderlin volleying over wastefully while Deeney cleared on the line to keep out Schweinsteiger’s header. At the other end, Capoue powerfully struck over from the edge of the area but Depay came close to a second as Gomes saved well following his surging run and shot from 25 yards.
United continued to attack at the start of the second half with Gomes saving to foil Jesse Lingard, while Schweinsteiger headed over from Juan Mata’s corner. David de Gea came to United’s rescue at the other end as he kept out Deeney’s piledriver from Ighalo’s header down. Depay could have sealed the game for the visitors midway through the second half when his shot from the left went just wide after good work from Lingard and Mata. — AFP