TITLE SHOWDONWewNs ‘We’ve been better in Liverpool clashes’
CITY could – and should – have won their last two meetings with league leaders Liverpool.
And Bernardo Silva thinks his team can take heart from the belief they feel they were the better team in the 0-0 draw at Anfield this season, and in the second leg defeat in the Champions League last season.
Bernardo helped City snap out of their mini-slump of three defeats in four games in the 3-1 win at Southampton, to tee up tonight’s clash.
And he feels that, despite the seven-point gap between the teams, City had the better of the last two games but were affected by the wrongful disallowing of Leroy Sane’s goal and then Riyad Mahrez’s penalty miss.
“Last season we beat them at home, we lost there in the Premier League and Champions League – in the first game (in Champions League) they were better than us,” he said.
“The second game I thought we were better than them, but because of a lot of things we don’t control, we lost that game.
“This season we could have beaten them, we could have won there, we missed a penalty at the end of the game.
“Here at home we will try to beat them again. It’s a very difficult team, a tough team, they work hard, they’re first, leading the league, so we’ll try to do it as we usually do.”
The Blues need a win to move back within four points of the league leaders, and put a dent in their high-flying confidence.
At Anfield earlier in the season, they revealed a rare piece of Pep Guardiola pragmatism, with Bernardo playing in a deeper role to counter-act Liverpool’s deadly counter-attacks.
It worked, with the Scousers barely creating a chance – and City would have won it but for that penalty miss.
Breaking down the best defence in the Premier League will be City’s biggest task, and Bernardo does not think the pressure of being leaders will affect Liverpool at all.
“They’ve had a lot of clean sheets, an impressive defence,” said the midfielder. “The front three, everyone knows how good they are. They work a lot. The midfielders they work a lot, they press a lot.
“It’s better to be that team (the leaders) than what we are right now. We have to think about ourselves, we have to think that we have to win every game possible to try to reach them, to close the gap a little bit and that’s what we’ll try to do in the next game. We know we are seven points behind and if we win it will be only four – seven or four is very different – but we’ll put some pressure into them.”