RAMPAGING REDS BURST PEP BUBBLE
Maybe they’re still running now, this Liverpool team. Maybe, as the sun rose over anfield this morning, there were still men in red shirts, chasing, harrying, closing down, sprinting away, as if their lives depended on it.
This is Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool. This is what they do. He called for bravery, he called for a team that was unafraid of Manchester City, that would dare to make history, and he got it. He got a response that swept the best team in britain off the pitch, that sent Pep Guardiola and Manchester City back along the M62 vanquished, humbled.
Some will say the tie is not over but if Liverpool play like this again, it is. The level of defensive commitment, the tirelessness, the ferocity — well, City could not live with it. We expected goals, and got them, but we expected them shared between two teams standing toe to toe, and instead all three went one way.
Liverpool were magnificent, delivering arguably the performance of the season by any english club. Clinical on occasions, but mighty in their defensive resilience, too. Loris Karius did not have a shot to save against a group of players who have been relentless in their attacking ambition this season.
Liverpool’s midfield were the stars. James Milner, Jordan Henderson, alex Oxlade-Chamberlain — as names on a team-sheet they appeared dwarfed by City’s stellar equivalent, yet this was their night. They protected the defensive line, they hassled City’s creators to the point of madness. Guardiola’s side looked lost in a way they have not all season — even here in January, losing 4-3.
This was, as the scoreline suggests, an improvement. a complete, emphatic triumph of will and spirit, backed by ferocious noise that only anfield on european nights conjures. This was a marker thrown down for this season, and the next, too — a result that says Liverpool are the real deal.
They have the beating of the best team in the land, so next year might be interesting, and if they can do this to City now, might they also be able to do it to barcelona, bayern Munich or Real Madrid this season?
Here’s the difference. Manchester City thought the usual, the Plan a that had served them so magnificently throughout this season, would be enough. Liverpool knew that this was different. It demanded more of them, so they gave more — the way Mo Farah does in his last lap, or Steven Redgrave’s Olympic rowers did over the final 500 metres.
This game was an apex for Liverpool under Klopp — and, if one recalls the match against borussia Dortmund, there have been some contenders.
Ultimately, it was not just the Manchester City bus that was harmed. Retreating from Liverpool, the tie near lost, their coach was looking pretty damaged, too. For Guardiola to say the way his team played suited Liverpool perfectly was an astonishing admission on the eve of such a big game. For him then to stick to that plan was just perverse.
Nobody wants a pragmatic Manchester City or Guardiola. Nobody wants cat and mouse. yet was there a way City could have set up that did not leave them so vulnerable to Liverpool’s front three?
What cannot be denied is that, by comparison, Klopp got all he demanded from his team, maybe even more. Guardiola talked up the maturity of players like Gabriel Jesus, but the best young player on the pitch was Trent alexanderarnold, who stood up to Leroy Sane tremendously.
and, whatever possession statistics show, Liverpool’s win was well deserved. The first was against the run of play, the second a shot from way out. yet by the time Liverpool made it three, nobody could argue there wasn’t sufficient merit in this performance.
as committed as their defence were, so the forwards were terrifying. No team will approach a fixture at anfield without a degree of trepidation after this. Not just the reception en route. Liverpool’s strength is that the passion in the ground finds its echo on the pitch. Klopp’s players do seem to want it more. They fired into tackles, their recovery sprints were lungbursting, their forward runs courageous and committed.
That Liverpool’s first goal was scored at a time when City had recorded 76 per cent possession sums up the difference between having the ball, and sticking it in the net. Sane had tested Liverpool with a brilliant dribble through three men into the penalty area, his shot deflected for a corner, but most of City’s good work had been done controlling the rhythm and tempo of the game. It was being played at their pace, to their specification. and then a momentary lapse later, and it was not.
Mo Salah was left unguarded on the halfway line and what followed was entirely predictable. Salah got the ball — he was a sliver offside, but by a margin that was not outrageous, and this happens — and broke for goal at electrifying speed. He fed Roberto Firmino, whose shot was weak but wasn’t well dealt with by ederson. Kyle Walker should have cleared it, maybe twice, but it fell to Salah in a position similar to his goal in Porto. as on that night, he made no mistake.
From there, City fell apart. They were two goals down after 20 minutes, three behind after 31. Liverpool had one of those spells where stuff just worked.
Oxlade-Chamberlain was superb and his goal was just reward for the sort of display arsene Wenger rarely extracted from him at arsenal. a tussle in midfield went Liverpool’s way, naturally, and Milner fed Oxlade-Chamberlain, who scored from 25 yards as ederson grasped at air.
Scenes. Flares. Maybe a UeFa fine. That wasn’t going to dampen anyone’s night, and when Sadio Mane added a third the only reason the roof wasn’t actually raised was because some Liverpool fans were perhaps dumb with disbelief. Salah had a shot, Vincent Kompany blocked it. Salah tried again, this time with subtlety — a lovely dinked cross that was met by Mane between two blue shirts and headed downwards into goal.
Henderson will miss the return, suspended, and maybe Salah if his groin injury does not clear in a week. and, of course, Liverpool surrendered three against Sevilla.
yet it looks as if the damage is already done. Some will blame pre-match intimidation, but that’s too easy. What scared City was on the field, not on the streets.