Dramatic draw with Liverpool, Man City holds the top of the Premier League

The epic battle between Man City and Liverpool took place attractively with the nature of the “final” of the Premier League. With the home field advantage, coach Pep Guardiola’s team dominated the game. Although Liverpool pushed up the pressing team to wait for the opponent to make mistakes, Man City still calmly deployed the attack to create opportunities.

Just 1 minute after Raheem Sterling failed to beat goalkeeper Alisson Becker in the face-to-face phase, conductor Kevin de Bruyne made the difference for Man City. Receiving a smart pass from Bernardo Silva, De Bruyne ran the ball straight into the Liverpool defence, then finished with his left foot and smashed the ball against Joel Matip’s foot to change direction, helping Man City take the lead.

De Bruyne’s goal made the match interesting as the two teams fought for tit-for-tat. In the 13th minute, Liverpool had the answer. Andy Robertson hung the ball just right for Alexander-Arnold at the bottom of the line, before the English defender stretched like a shot for Diogo Jota to finish close, bringing the game back to the starting line.

However, Liverpool cannot maintain regular attacking pressure like Man City. The second half of the first half saw the trio of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Jota being divided by the home defense, leading to the number of opportunities counted on the fingers. Meanwhile, Man City cut into Alexander-Arnold’s wing when the defender tends to attack.

In the 31st minute, Joao Cancelo had a soft handle on the left wing, dribbling past the Liverpool defender and then passing it to De Bruyne. Man City’s conductor fooled goalkeeper Alisson with a shot into the near corner, but the ball narrowly missed the post.

Seven minutes later, Cancelo made his mark again with a sharp pass and this time Gabriel Jesus capitalized on it. After the ball bounced from Liverpool’s defensive situation, Cancelo passed a classy cross for Jesus to cross. The Brazilian striker beat goalkeeper Alisson with a ball that bounced off the bar and went into the net of Liverpool, giving Man City a 2-1 lead.

At the beginning of the second half, Liverpool accelerated and found an equalizer. Salah made a classy pass to let Mane down to beat Ederson, for the second time to help Liverpool equalize.

Man City then hit Liverpool for the third time. De Bruyne poked a hole for Sterling to escape to defeat Alisson in the face-to-face position. However, VAR confirmed Sterling had fallen into an offside position earlier.

Both teams created many opportunities in the second half of the second half, but no more goals were scored. Riyad Mahrez was the most regretful player with a free kick that bounced off the post and a tire that went over the bar in the last minute of injury time.

Draw 2-2, Man City defended the first place with a gap of 1 point more than Liverpool after round 32.

Final results: Man City 2-2 Liverpool (De Bruyne 5′, Jota 13′, Jesus 38′, Mane 46′)