EARLY FIRE IS EXTINGUISHED:
FEARS of a reprisal attack proved wide of the mark before kick-off with a couple of spots of rain the only thing to connect with the windscreen of the Liverpool coach as it wound its way in.
Six days after the City coach had arrived at Anfield looking as if it had been borrowed from the set of Speed, the big red coach turned sedately and untroubled left from Ashton New Road towards the stadium.
Those who were lining the road stared with slight bemusement at the presidential escort of flashing police vehicles accompanying it. They looked more likely to put out their arm for a lift as they were to throw anything at it.
Inside the stadium 10 minutes before kick-off the welcome was just as genteel as the seats slowly filled and the announcer tried his level best to pick up the atmosphere.
It was perhaps unfortunate as well as that the fans were asked to wave flags. Half of them were white – not quite the image City had in mind when they planned things.
But then a three-goal deficit had not been what City had in mind after the first leg when they had been hit by something far more damaging than an empty bottle of Pils.
What they needed here was an injection of adrenaline, a double espresso of a start and with the clock yet to tick over to two minutes, that was what they got.
The disappointment of failing to secure the Premier League title against Manchester United on Saturday and particularly the manner in which it had been squandered, had clearly led to a collective feeling of resignation.
Allied to the sight of the mountain face ahead of them, no wonder City’s fans needed something of a lift. No wonder Jurgen Klopp had warned his players to expect a “thunderstorm”.
Klopp cannot have expected a City line-up that looked as if Pep Guardiola had thrown the shirts in a heap on the dressing room floor and picked them out at random.
Where Liverpool’s line-up was as predicted with Mohamed Salah recovering from his groin strain, City threw curveballs all over the pitch. In a match where City could not afford to concede, Guardiola went with a back three and Vincent Kompany on the bench.
Up front he stuck with Gabriel Jesus, who had been largely anonymous at Anfield, leaving Sergio Aguero on the bench. In behind Raheem Sterling was given a free role to make a nuisance. City’s fans have been accused of ambivalence towards this competition in the past – there was the traditional cold welcome for the Champions League ‘anthem’ beforehand.
But it is in their DNA to be seduced by an impossible mountain climb and Jesus lit a spark last night with his second-minute goal that ensured the early atmosphere was electric.
Guardiola was the perfect lightning rod for that electricity, so incensed was he by the decision of referee Antonio Lahoz to wrongly disallow Leroy Sane’s goal.
Guardiola sat high in the stand in the second half as all but wild hope appeared to be finally extinguished when Salah hooked in from an angle.
A mountain to climb became the moon to shoot at with just over half an hour to go, Liverpool’s equaliser leaving City hopelessly stranded. Not even the introduction of Aguero could raise the spirits.
Roberto Firmino then put the visitors 2-1 ahead and City trailed by a distant 5-1 on aggregate.
There will be compensation awaiting in the league title but this Champions League exit began with a storm and finished in a whimper.