Johnny On The Spot: It wasn’t the Liverpudlian procession that the pundits craved with honours even on Merseyside. A hectic but awry first half saw two immensely talented sides stuttering 60%-40% in Liverpool’s disjointed favour overseen by an abysmal Martin Atkinson. After weathering Jurgen Klopp’s obligatory dogs chasing sticks opening 15 minutes, City worked hard to get a foot-hold in the game and achieved it to the chagrin of the home support and the people’s champions media machine, the Blues coming into the game the fresher side. There was an element of make sure about City in the last 10 minutes of the opening period with Laporte excelling. Was Pep Guardiola tactically looking to exploit any “Napoli legs” in the second period? Following some harrowing experiences here of late City would easily be the happier side with parity at the break. However, neither one of City’s full backs had let the handbrakes off. The game could go either way and probably would…. Liverpool barrelled out of the traps after the break looking determined to see City off rapidly and the game suddenly opened up, pantomime season with it briefly too as the two managers exchanged words over Henderson’s embarrassing over reaction to an Aguero foul. The edginess surrounding the game then returned and increased along with an erratic if frantic ebb and flow. Maybe an individual piece of brilliance or a mistake could tip the finely balanced stakes…both sides had been guilty of coughing up possession cheaply. The roof then blew off the place as City’s most expensive player Mahrez, pulling rank on Jesus, threw away a penalty gifted by the world’s most expensive defender Van Dijk who had badly mistimed a challenge on Sané. It was a shockingly unacceptable miss by a man who had missed 3 penaties in 5 previously. It sparked a reprieved Liverpool into life and they kitchen sinked the situation to the full time whistle…City go into the second international break top of the table but rueing a golden chance to break that Anfield hoodoo. Man of The Match for me was Laporte, imperious throughout.
Anfield
FA Premier League
10/07/2018 5:30 pm
Referee: Martin Atkinson of West Yorkshire
| Liverpool | Manchester City | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Alisson | 31 Ederson | ||||||
| 12 Joe Gomez | 2 Kyle Walker | ||||||
| 6 Dejan Lovren | 5 John Stones | ||||||
| 4 Virgil van Dijk | 14 Aymeric Laporte | ||||||
| 26 Andrew Robertson | 22 Benjamin Mendy | ||||||
| 5 Georgino Wijnaldum | 20 Bernardo Silva | ||||||
| 7 James Milner | Keita 29' | 25 Fernandinho | |||||
| 11 Mohamed Salah | 26 Riyad Mahrez | ||||||
| 9 Roberto Firmino | Sturridge 72' | 21 David Silva | |||||
| 10 Sadio Mané | 7 Raheem Sterling | Sané 76' | |||||
| 14 Jordan Henderson | 10 Sergio Agüero | Jesus 66' | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| 3 Fabinho | 3 Danilo | ||||||
| 8 Naby Keita | 4 Vincent Kompany | ||||||
| 15 Daniel Sturridge | 19 Leroy Sané | ||||||
| 22 Simon Mignolet | 30 Nicolas Otamendi | ||||||
| 23 Xherdan Shaqiri | 33 Gabriel Jesus | ||||||
| 32 Joel Matip | 47 Philip Foden | ||||||
| 66 Trent Alexander-Arnold | 49 Aro Muric | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 7 | Goal attempts | 6 |
| 2 | On Target | 2 |
| 2 | Corners | 7 |
| 10 | Fouls | 10 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 3 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 48 | % | 52 |