United claw draw but Chelsea in front
Zlatan Ibrahimovic rescued a point for Manchester United against Liverpool yesterday after Manchester City’s English Premier League title hopes were dealt a serious blow with a heavy defeat at Everton.
Ibrahimovic’s 84th-minute header gave United a 1-1 draw with bitter rivals Liverpool at Old Trafford.
The result lifts Liverpool to third, seven points behind leaders Chelsea, with United 12 points off the pace in sixth place.
“We got one point, we were not at the top of our game,” Ibrahimovic told Sky Sports. “It was a hard fight.
“We were 1-0 down and chased and chased, it was a different game in the second half and we got an equaliser.”
Manchester City were thrashed 4-0 at Everton and are now 10 points behind Chelsea in fifth.
“Of course we can do better,” City manager Pep Guardiola said.
“It is awful for my players. It is normal to live these kind of situations sometimes.”
Liverpool extended their unbeaten run to six league games and ended United’s ninegame winning run in all competitions, though the Red Devils remain unbeaten in 16 overall.
“I hoped we would have a bit of luck, unfortunately not but all good,” Liverpool boss Juergen Klopp told the BBC.
“It is so intense. We were here to win the game which is why we are not 100 per cent satisfied.”
Liverpool’s James Milner scored with a first-half penalty after Paul Pogba handled the ball from a corner kick.
United started to push and were rewarded when Ibrahimovic nodded the ball in off the bottom of the crossbar seconds after Marouane Fellaini had headed off the post.
“I didn’t think the game had super quality,” United manager Jose Mourinho said.
“We didn’t reflect the qualities we have and Liverpool have but it was very emotional, intense, aggressive. We fought until the last second.”
Everton had just 29 per cent possession against City but scored with four of their six shots at Goodison Park.
Romelu Lukaku opened the scoring with Everton’s only shot of the first half and Kevin Mirallas doubled the lead two minutes after the restart.
Then 18-year-old Tom Davies scored his first Everton goal in the 79th minute and Ademola Lookman, making his debut after signing from Charlton 10 days ago, added the exclamation mark in stoppage time.