Match Report
11/04/2018
Liverpool secured a place in the semi-finals of the Champions League in over 10 years with second half goals from Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino as they beat a spirited Manchester City side 2-1 (agg. 5-1) at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night.
Both City and Liverpool had derby duties at the weekend, with Liverpool settling for a barren draw and City threw away a two-goal lead to ultimately lose 3-2 to United.
Pep Guardiola, coming from two consecutive 3 goal defeats, made a brave selection, who went all out attack in an attempt to get City back into the contest. Liverpool, made a much more conservative selection as Salah was declared fit for this fixture. Captain Jordan Henderson, suspended for the match, is replaced by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
There was tense and hostile atmosphere at the Etihad as it kicked off.
An incredible start from City where they opened the score sheet on the 2nd minutes itself. City needed a fast start, and they got one! Raheem Sterling pressed Van Dijk, who conceded a sloppy ball straight into the middle. Fernandinho set up Sterling away down the right, who in turn squared it up to Gabriel Jesus, and the striker made no mistake to slot home.
City exactly needed a lighting start- and Sterling was the architect. City continued its full-throttle attacking and pressed deep. Later on the 14th minute, Ederson got into an altercation with Sadio Mane, who slid on Otamendi. The referee made a double booking to Mane and Ederson.
Guardiola’s system showed promise, although Liverpool managed to be on the back foot the entire first-half. Leroy Sane, Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne continued to trouble Liverpool’s fullbacks, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson.
Chaos broke out on the sidelines, as Pep was livid from the disallowed goal of Leroy Sane, and Liverpool were saved by the offside flag, when the ball had come back from ex-City player James Milner, meaning the goal should have stood.
As result of this, Pep was sent to the stands for the remaining portion of the match, for his complaints to the referee.
The usual City sided started to pop up on the second-half, as they lost their tempo on the second half, where City just simply failed to come up with a spark.
David Silva lofted a precise cross to Sane, who did well to head it across goal, but Dejan Lovren was on hand to clear it on the 50th minute.
Mohamed Salah broke City hearts on the 56th minute when, he picked up the scraps to loft a sublime finish into the far corner. Roberto Firmino got away with the foul, and Sadio Mane did well to keep up the ball, picking out Mo Salah, who scored his 39th goal of the season. Game over for City!
City ran out of ideas and the Liverpool fans were in raptures in the away end following Salah’s brilliant finish. That Salah goal had clearly taken the wind out of the host’s sails.
Van Dijk became the fourth player to be booked, as City substituted David Silva for Sergio Aguero.
City came close in cutting the deficit, when Laporte tried his luck, which took a wicked deflection off Lovren, looping just wide.
Bernardo Silva made way for Ilkay Gundogan, the second change of the night for City on 74th minute.
But with 13 minutes remaining on the clock, Liverpool set the seal on their place in the semi-finals, Nicolas Otamendi’s mistake presented the ball to Roberto Firmino, who managed to keep his cool to send his strike across Ederson.
With that result, Liverpool became the first English team to score the most number of goals in a Champions League season, with 33. Liverpool’s feat cannot be underestimated as they were the deserving winners, and the 5-1 aggregate clearly showed that.
Digitized Thoughts 