Pep Guardiola’s team had a big victory over Liverpool in the match in the 29th round of the Premier League taking place on the evening of April 1.
Man City is rated higher than Liverpool before the game, but few think the port city team can play so weakly. In the 17th minute, Mohamed Salah gave “The Kop” a dream start when he scored the opening goal from a sharp counter-attack by the visitors. However, this is only the beginning of the nightmare of coach Jurgen Klopp and his students.
Man City almost did not flinch after the early goal. They continued to control the ball and the game. The home team owns up to 65% of the whole game and creates an expected goal index (xG) up to 2.41. There is no Erling Haaland in the squad because of injury, but Pep shows that Man City still knows how to score and smash opponents.
Meanwhile, except for Salah’s opening goal, “The Kop” almost suffered and played a deadlock in attack with xG at only 0.26. Julian Alvarez’s equalizer in the 27th minute was so inevitable. Jack Grealish had an assist situation like placing Alvarez with the ball at close range to equalize for the home team. De Bruyne continues to be the trigger. Man City did not falter despite letting the opponent take the lead and exploit the spaces.
At the beginning of the second half, Man City took advantage of the indiscretion of the Liverpool defense to take a 2-1 lead. De Bruyne cushioned the ball easily to make it 2-1 after a horizontal stretch as placed by Mahrez. The home team’s coordination continued to show flexibility and versatility with the De Bruyne – Grealish – Mahrez trio.
In the 53rd and 74th minutes, respectively, Gundogan and Grealish scored two more goals to help Man City close the match with a 4-1 victory. The blue half of Manchester continues to chase Arsenal in the race for the Premier League title and firmly in second place on the rankings.
Meanwhile, this heavy defeat continues to show the instability of Liverpool. The race to qualify for next season’s Champions League is the only thing that matters to the Anfield team at the moment. However, they are entrenched in 6th place in the rankings with 6 points worse than the 4th place Tottenham.
