ALL OVER BEFORE IT BEGAN
Liverpool beat second-string City to keep their Quadruple dream alive, but this was...
IT WAS over before it began. It was over when Kevin De Bruyne was injured in Manchester City’s battle with Atletico Madrid last week. It was over when City’s players, emotionally and physically exhausted, fought their way back up the tunnel at the end of the Battle of the Wanda Metropolitano past the head-butts and the fists, overcome by the relief and triumph of their two-leg victory.
It was over when Pep Guardiola named his team for this FA Cup semi-final at Wembley an hour before kick-off and three of City’s first-choice back four were missing from the starting XI. It was over when Fernandinho, a man who is starting to play like a midfielder who is leaving at the end of the season, was picked to hold the line. It was over when Zack Steffen was given a go in goal instead of Ederson.
It was over when the unmistakable message Guardiola sent out was that he was prioritising the Premier League and the Champions League. No blame should be attached to him for that. City’s squad is not as deep as Liverpool’s and however City may wish to try to disguise it, winning the Champions League for the first time in their history has become their Holy Grail. Everything else is secondary.
It was over when Jurgen Klopp was able to rest several of his firstchoice players for the game against Benfica last week. It was over when the Liverpool team was announced and it was a first-choice XI. It was one of those occasions when everyone could sense what was coming.
Even Peter Reid, the great Evertonian, knew it when he was interviewed before the game. To his regret, he said, he foresaw a win ‘for the Reds’. And so, if the league clash between the two best teams in England last weekend was a thriller, we knew how this film ended before we sat down to watch it. City improved in the second half and the closing stages were frantic but the scoreline did not reflect a first half, in particular, that was brutally one-sided. At the end, Liverpool had progressed to next month’s FA Cup final, still in the hunt for an unprecedented Quadruple. City’s focus had narrowed.
It is to be hoped this was merely the second instalment of a late-season trilogy between these two giants and that the third will come in the Champions League final in Paris on May 28.
This match may not have offered too many clues to the outcome of that game, if City and Liverpool get past Real Madrid and Villarreal respectively, but the way Klopp ran to the Liverpool fans and offered his customary fist-pumping celebration suggested his side will eke as much meaning as they can from this result.
Even if City were below par, Liverpool’s performance in the first 45 minutes, in particular, was stunning. They played with a hunger that overwhelmed their opponents. Sadio Mane, man of the match, was especially relentless. They swarmed all over City and forced them into a series of mistakes. Thiago Alcantara swaggered around Wembley imperiously and Naby Keita and Fabinho obliterated Bernardo Silva and Fernandinho.
‘Absolutely proud, incredible,’ Klopp said. ‘I think the first half was one of the best we ever played. We did all the right stuff, we scored in the right moments, we played an incredible first half, I really loved each second. We are over the moon. We beat the strongest team in the world and that’s pretty special.’
Guardiola made seven changes from the team that drew at Atletico and was unapologetic. ‘We have no alternative other than to make changes,’ he said. ‘We have injuries and have had incredibly demanding fixtures. We had no choice — we have to have fresh legs.’
Some of City’s fans brought shame on the club by chanting throughout the beginning of what was intended as a minute’s silence to remember Liverpool fans killed in the Hillsborough Disaster. City issued a prompt apology that was echoed later by Guardiola. ‘It does not represent who we are,’ he said.
Despite the mood music, City forged an early half-chance when Gabriel Jesus broke down the right and slipped the ball inside to Jack Grealish. A more confident Grealish might have hit it first time. But he took a touch and allowed a defender to block his shot.
A few minutes later, Liverpool were in front. Andrew Robertson swung over a corner and Ibrahima Konate muscled Jesus out of the way to climb majestically above Nathan Ake and power a header beyond Steffen. At the other end, the air turned red as a smoke bomb was hurled on to the pitch from the celebrating Liverpool fans.
Liverpool went further ahead inside 18 minutes. This time, the goal was an aberration. Maybe even an abomination. Ederson was hailed as the King of Cool last weekend for his composure under pressure but when Steffen tried to affect the same nonchalance, he was brutally exposed.
There was no danger when John Stones rolled a backpass to the American goalkeeper but Steffen took one touch with his left foot and then, as Mane raced towards him,
he wondered about taking another with his right foot but thought better of it. Then he did take a touch and now Mane was upon him. Steffen tried to clear it but it was too late. Mane slid in, got to the ball first and forced it over the line.
The match was so one-sided, it felt strange. It seemed unnatural to see City outclassed. Virgil van Dijk flicked the ball up and let it spin back to him before he played it square, Luis Diaz went through his tricks and flicks and Thiago ran the show in midfield. City, by contrast, seemed to turn into Atletico. All they could muster was a series of fouls.
Liverpool underlined their dominance on the stroke of half-time. After Diaz had seen a shot blocked, Thiago and Trent Alexander-Arnold exchanged quick passes on the edge of the City area. Thiago floated a delicate ball to Mane, who volleyed it with the outside of his foot so that it span away from Steffen’s left hand and beat him at his near post. This match was not the reserve keeper’s finest hour.
Little more than 60 seconds after the interval, City grabbed a lifeline. Robertson gave the ball away, Fernandinho carried it down the right and played it inside to Jesus. He laid it square to Grealish who lashed it first time past Alisson with the outside of his left boot.
City threatened again. Jesus raced through but his shot was deflected over by Alisson. The tempo grew frantic. Fernandinho was lucky not to get a straight red for a mistimed tackle on Mane, saved from dismissal only because his studs were not raised.
City should have drawn closer with 20 minutes to go. Grealish’s toe-poke put
Jesus through one-on-one with Alisson, but he hit it too close to the keeper and it cannoned off his left boot and bounced wide. It was a big save. That’s what you get when you pick your best goalkeeper.
A minute later, Oleksandr Zinchenko tried to head back to Steffen but allowed Mo Salah to steal in. Salah’s dink looped
lazily into the side-netting. City did get a second in stoppage time. Substitute Riyad Mahrez tried to tuck his shot between Alisson’s legs. The ball squirmed free and ran to Silva, who slid it into the empty net. That set up a frantic finish that saw Fernandinho blaze over but Liverpool hung on.