Aguero rescues point in game of epic endeavour
Bonkers. Utterly and gloriously bonkers. And that was just the two manic managers on the touchline. Little wonder Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp collapsed into each other’s arms at the final whistle. This was as relentless, dramatic, astonishing and compelling as it comes. And somehow it ended just 1-1. Right result. Wrong scoreline. Four-four would have been a better reflection of what unfolded.
It was an encounter of such breathless, topsy-turvy commitment – full of thrills and spills – that the man of the match, Adam Lallana, also committed the miss of the season, and James Milner, of all people, incurred the attention of the boo-boys against his former club. It was certainly not boring.
Quite where it leaves City and Liverpool remains to be seen, although the real winner was probably Manchester United and Jose Mourinho, who will have curled his lip at the defending. There could have been a ‘hockey score’, as Mourinho once put it.
Neither team felt like they could afford to lose but both went for it and tried to win. The quality of the defending, John Stones apart, was questionable, but when teams attack with such endeavour there is sometimes a price to pay. If only, as Guardiola lamented, and Klopp could have concurred, they had taken their chances.
Klopp turned his back, as is his custom, as Milner waited to take the penalty that gave Liverpool the lead, but this was a match that you simply could not take your eyes off. By converting that spot-kick, his seventh of the season, Milner also took the record for being unbeaten in Premier League matches in which he has scored to 47, overtaking Darius Vassell.
Afterwards Guardiola spoke of his pride – and City did bounce back after that draining Champions League exit to Monaco last midweek – while Klopp appeared less happy: he knows United can catch Liverpool with their games in hand. But if his side continue to play like this they will eat up points.
There was controversy, also. Of course there was. There was one penalty, and there could have been two more – one for each side – while both could also have had players red-carded.
Where to start? Probably, with such a chaotic match, at the start, when Yaya Touré, who went on to have a disappointing performance, slid in recklessly, boot up, using excessive force. He caught Emre Can on the right shoulder yet was only cautioned by referee Michael Oliver.
Then Sadio Mané was too quick for Nicolas Otamendi as he sprinted on to an under-hit back-pass, and as the Liverpool forward pulled his foot back to shoot he was caught by the City defender and crumpled to the turf. Again, no penalty.
And neither a penalty or a red card was given when, at the other end, Raheem Sterling hurtled forward to try to turn in David Silva’s low cross only for Milner to dive in and prevent him while Fernandinho sidefooted the ball wastefully into the side-netting. The Brazilian should have scored.
As Silva should have done earlier from a wonderful City counterattack, with Sergio Agüero playing the ball infield to Sterling, who found Leroy Sané. The German eventually crossed low, with goalkeeper Simon Mignolet pushing it out towards the penalty spot. Silva met it with a crisp half-volley that flew narrowly over.
It carried on. Willy Caballero produced two fines saves, firstly to deny Roberto Firmino and then tipping over Lallana’s fierce half-volley when the goalkeeper’s punched To the rescue: Sergio Agüero puts City’s equaliser past Simon Mignolet clearance had fallen to him. After that, Stones reacted sharply to block Joël Matip’s sidefooted shot from inside the six-yard area.
Half-time arrived. And breathe. Then, in the second half, they went for it again, with Can picking out Firmino in swathes of space inside the area, only for Gaël Clichy to clatter into him. This time a penalty was given, despite City’s lengthy protestations, and Milner calmly sent Caballero the wrong way.
What now? Stones almost immediately equalised but headed wide from a corner, before Liverpool could have ended it. After a strong run, Philippe Coutinho, who is still struggling to find his best form after recovering from injury, released Firmino, who was clear on goal but was thwarted by Caballero with another fine save.
At that point Guardiola, crucially, changed things. He withdrew Touré, pushed Kevin De Bruyne wide and moved Fernandinho into midfield, and City improved. They also quickly scored, with those two players combining for De Bruyne to deliver a brilliant, curling cross that deceived Ragnar Klavan and allowed Agüero to sweep the ball into the net with a trademark finish.
It changed the mood. Suddenly City were on top – and then almost ahead as Agüero powered into the area but stumbled. The ball rebounded off Milner and ran to De Bruyne, whose shot cannoned back off a post.
Both teams were fired up. Each sensed the other’s vulnerabilities – and also had the overwhelming, commendable desire to win. There was no attempt to close it down. It was twist not stick, and Liverpool poured forward, with Lallana charging upfield and eventually finding Georginio Wijnaldum, who chipped the ball to Firmino.
He teed up Lallana, in front of goal – who miscued completely. The mitigation? Lallana had run himself into the ground. But still, what a miss.
Would City capitalise? After Sterling had beaten Mignolet to the ball, only for it to be scrambled clear for a corner, a deep cross found Agüero deep into added time. Everyone knew the rest… except, incredibly, the striker blazed his volley high over the crossbar.
And the game ended. “Nice game to watch, probably,” Klopp later said. “But on the sideline really hard work.” It looked like it. And was all the more entertaining for that.