Although this fixture wasn’t the title clash that it was last season, it lived up to similar standards in terms of excitement. Both teams still had a lot to fight for – Liverpool needed a win to keep up their pursuit of a place in the top four, while City wanted three points in a bid to keep the pressure on Chelsea. The two sides are both renowned for their easy on the eye attacking football, and they certainly didn’t disappoint. They produced one of the games of the season, with Liverpool eventually coming out 2-1 winners courtesy of wonder-strikes from Jordan Henderson and Philippe Coutinho respectively.
It was evident from kick-off that this was going to be a hard fought affair. Immediately the game developed an end-to-end nature, with both sides looking very threatening. City perhaps looked a little more likely to score in the opening exchanges, perhaps due to their extra recovery day since the two teams’ European excursions. However, a moment of pure inspiration from Jordan Henderson after eleven minutes meant it was the hosts who struck first. Sterling passed the ball to the captain, who was in a fair amount of space outside of the box. After a touch to set himself, the ex-Sunderland man curled the ball powerfully into the top corner, leaving Joe Hart completely powerless to prevent it.
The game continued in much the same way after this, although City’s attacking play had a little more urgency about it. Aguero struck the post just two minutes after they fell behind, and then turned provider after 25 minutes to give City an equaliser. He slotted a perfect ball through to Dzeko, who made no mistake with his finish. Can could be criticised for not stepping forward and playing Dzeko offside, and Lovren was perhaps a little guilty of ball watching, but the goal largely came courtesy of Aguero’s excellent vision and technique.
Source: liverpoolfc.com
From this moment on it was Liverpool who seized the initiative, playing the better football from then until the end of the game. Coutinho was instrumental in this, showcasing his amazing dribbling talents to embarrass City defenders on multiple occasions. Zabaletta had a particularly torrid time of things; Sterling and Coutinho both caused him multiple problems in the first half. To be fair to the Argentinean, he had an immense second half – he made multiple crucial tackles and drastically reduced Liverpool’s threat down the left. Allen should also be singled out for praise. Many have said that this match was his best in a Liverpool shirt: his close control and passing were both excellent, and he definitely brought a degree of composure into the Liverpool midfield. Lallana, too, was excellent. He was using his undoubted skill properly for once – rather than executing ten pointless Cruyff turns before giving the ball away, he was actually beating men and creating chances. His highlight was a beautiful piece of first time control in the second half; he took the ball down and beat his marker with a beautiful piece of trickery all in one movement.
Although Liverpool had really begun to dominate by the hour mark, their inability to pick out a final ball meant that it looked like the match could be heading for a draw. Coutinho had other ideas. If there was any doubt that he deserved man of the match, he ended it by scoring an absolute peach of a goal to win the match for the hosts and hugely bolster their chances of finishing fourth or higher. Henderson watched on as his goal went from goal of the season contender to not even goal of the game: Coutinho struck one from even further out, and it curled in a remarkably similar way straight into the top corner. The Brazilian is making a habit of scoring exceptional goals – everyone’s been saying for a while that he would be scarily good if he added goals to his game, and two in two matches speaks for itself. He is fast becoming the complete package, to the point where I’d now rather lose Sterling than Coutinho.
To sum up, both sides deserve credit for an all-round excellent game of football. Neither team was perfect defensively – Liverpool clearly missed Sakho – but that just added to the spectacle. In the end it took two moments of magic to see Liverpool take all three points, and continue on the right track for a top four finish. Their next game is against Burnley; we’ve beaten the big team, but getting the results against the minnows is just as important. Hopefully Liverpool can retain their unbeaten league record in 2015 and pile even more pressure on Arsenal and United.
James Martin
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