It’ll be a tough afternoon at the Etihad as we face probably our biggest rivals in the League over the past few years.
8 minutes in and Jérémy Doku heads into the box on the left hand side. He moves around the goalkeeper but Mamardashvili seemingly brings him down although it is very doubtful but after the ref checks on VAR, to the joy of the raucaous home crowd, the referee award a penalty. Unbelievably, Haaland steps up and misses, with the keeper redeeming himself witha. good save. We are lucky.
It’s quite a hard fought game. Unfortunately Liverpool can’t break through the City defence into any decent goalscoring positions.
Jérémy Doku is getting a lot of joy down the left and after beating Connor Bradley has a good strike on goal with Mamardashvili being tested but reatcing well and putting it behind safely. 27 minutes in and it’s still 0-0.
Nico González gets a booking for a foul on Florian Wirtz.
Matheus Nunes send in a ball from the right which bounces of Konate’s head and into the path of Haaland who heads it in. 1-0 City.
Liverpool fight back straight away with Virgil Van Dijk rising to a header from a cross but the goal is ruled out because Andy Robertson is offside. It is a controversial decision and Slot is furious.
Alexis Mac Allister is the first LFC player to go into the book as he is called up for a foul. Bernardo Silva soon joins him after fouling Wirtz.
6 minutes of extra time in the first half and it does Liverpool no good. Nico González has a long range shot and it luckily deflects off Van Dijk’s leg and past the keeper. 2-0 to City at half-time. Liverpool have been pretty woeful and have not yet managed a shot on target, apart from, of course, the disallowed goal.
At the start of the second half, again, it’s Jérémy Doku who is proving to be the danger man as he goes close again. He is difficult to handle and LFC are chucking up to three players on him to mark him down the right.
Connor Bradley is having a right tough time in defence, having to deal with the Doku issue. But Bradley starts moving forward a bit more in attack and he delivers a great ball into Gakpo who unfrotunately cannot convert.
A ranging ball crossfield to the left, gets taken up by Doku, who steps inside and from outside the box, has a lovely curling shot, delivering on the promise he has been showing all game. It’s 3-0 to Man City. No way back for us today really.
Szoboszlai hits a cross in that gets deflected behind for a corner. Salah is being very quiet.
Thank God that Jérémy Doku gets substituted. He has been running us ragged and is likely to be player of the match. The Blue Mooners give him a standing ovation which is well-deserved. Omar Marmoush steps onto the field to replace him.
at 75 minutes Szoboszlai has a sweet strie from outside the box but the keeper is on hand to brush it away. It’s too little, too late.
Salah eventually manages to break through and is on a one-on-one with the goalie but his effort skips wide. It really isn’t our day. We are fighting back but City are too comfortable with their three goal cushion and can afford to relax a little.
Gomez and Chiesa comes on for Bradley and Wirtz.
Salah is just getting fleeced down the right snd is powerless. He’s a shadow of the player we saw last season. Is he getting too. old, perhaps? Just maybe a slight drop in pace could really detrimentally affect his ability to destroy opposition defences.
The CIty fans at the Etihad are having a wonderful time and goading us with their emphatic victory. They have transcended their blip and are back on top form: a force to be reckoned with.
The match finishes 3-0 and we have had a shocker of a day at the office. Where next?
Our defence is at sixes and sevens and Konate is having a nightmare of a season so far and is really a weak link. Also, I’m not sure if it’s a lack of communication or not but our attacks just don’t gel together properly. They lack consistency. And, for certain, we need Allison back and soon. He is such a key ingredient to success at Liverpool. We can write off our chance sin the Prem this year which is terrible at such an early stage of the new season, and unless we sort it out we’ll struggle to get a top four finish the leaky, unenthusiastic,shaky way we are playing our games in the League. #ynwa
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