LIVERPOOL 1-0 MAN CITY
It was a tale of a disallowed City goal and Mo Salah taking his second chance to condemn the champions to their first league defeat of the season.
The first half was played at a frantic pace, but there was only two real clear-cut chances. Liverpool's best opportunity to break the first half deadlock fell to Andy Roberston, who blazed over when the ball drop to him. Erling Haaland had a couple of sighters, but his best effort was a downward header that Alisson was right behind.
Liverpool started the better, but City grew into the match as the half went on, with Kevin de Bruyne coming to the fore and keeping the home defence on their toes.
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Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool holds off Erling Haaland of Manchester City, at Anfield. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)[/caption]
Ederson stunner denies Mo Salah
Mo Salah had a glorious opportunity to score the opener, on 50 minutes, when he spun to shake off the City defence and streak clear. Ederson came out to narrow the angle and made an incredible finger-tip save.
The goalkeeper needed treatment then, after a couple of minutes, got up to take a goal-kick that should have been a Liverpool corner.
https://twitter.com/SkySportsPL/status/1581687258821775363
Disallowed goal before Salah strikes
In the next City attack, mere moments later, Alisson slid in to deny Haaland but the ball fell to Phil Foden, who scored via a Joe Gomez deflection.
City celebrations were cut short, though, as referee Phil Taylor was sent to the pitch-side monitor by the VAR team. A minor jersey tug by Haaland on Fabinho saw the goal ruled out, but justice had been done as City should have been defending a Liverpool corner-kick, in the first place.
As if that was not enough drama, Harvey Elliott then cut the City defence apart and Diogo Jota missed an easy header from close range, albeit under pressure from Ederson. After a wild five minutes, it somehow remained 0-0.
Haaland was denied by a low Alisson save, on 65 minutes, while Bernardo Silva let fly from 25 yards out but could not hit the target. Jürgen Klopp had seen enough, and summoned his substitutes back from their sideline warm-ups. As the German pondered what changes to make, Salah was wide with a curling effort, on 69 minutes.
The next chance the Egyptian got, though, he scored. Alisson spotted him marked one-on-one and fired a flat kick-out that caused a defensive hash. Salah did the rest:
https://twitter.com/SkySportsPL/status/1581693299626156033
Darwin Nunez had two chances to tee-up the clinching goal, in the final stages.
The substitute greedily shot to spurn the first one and almost found Trent Alexander Arnold with the next, but it mattered not. Liverpool are not fully back in the title race, but they can see City in the distance.
LIVERPOOL PLAYER RATINGS
Alisson - 8
Milner - 8
Gomez - 9
Van Dijk - 7
Robertson - 7
Thiago - 7
Elliott - 7
Fabinho - 8
Salah - 8
Firmino - 7
Jota - 6
Substitutes: Nunez (for Firmino '70) 5, Carvalho (for Elliott '70) 6, Henderson (for Fabinho '70) 6.
MAN CITY PLAYER RATINGS
Ederson - 8
Cancelo - 6
Akanji - 6
Dias - 6
Aké - 7
Gundogan - 6
Rodri - 8
De Bruyne - 7
Silva - 6
Haaland - 6
Foden - 7
