Manchester City beat Liverpool to advance to quarter-finals

A few days after the end of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, it is already the return to competition for English clubs, with the knockout stages of the English League Cup before the Premier League and its traditional Boxing Day the next week. While Manchester United and Nottingham Forest have already won their ticket to the next stadium, Manchester City and Liverpool faced off at the Etihad Stadium for a place in the quarter-finals of the second national cup, after the FA Cup. A return to competition for two great football strikers across the Channel, Erling Haaland with the Cityzens and Mohamed Salah on the Reds side, who did not play in the Qatari World Cup, respectively with Norway and Egypt.

From the start of the match, the Cyborg, without an official match for over a month, did not wait to light the first fuse but missed his shot at the entrance to the area (1st). Darwin Núñez answered him in stride but Aymeric Laporte cut the ball trajectory (2nd). The young Cole Palmer was not far from opening the score in front of his public if he came to use the right surface of the foot to take back the good center of Haaland. Finally, it was the latter who unlocked the mark for the locals with a superb header in front of Joe Gomez to deceive Caoimhín Kelleher (1-0, 10th). Ten minutes later, on good work from Joel Matip on the right, Fabio Carvalho took over the center of the Cameroonian and found the small net of Stefan Ortega (1-1, 20th).

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A tense end to the meeting

Beaten by the Norwegian in the first quarter of an hour, the Liverpool goalkeeper nevertheless won his duels before the break against Ilkay Gundogan (36th) and Nathan Aké (37th). The Reds, current 6th in the championship, could even return to the locker room against leader Arsenal’s dolphin with the advantage if their Uruguayan striker was more precise on his two chances, off target (42nd, 45 + 2nd). Returning from the locker room, Riyad Mahrez did not wait to restore the advantage to the Skyblues with a very nice roll, preceded by a perfect oriented control on the opening of Rodri (2-1, 47th). In the process, Mohamed Salah tied the two teams with his left foot, served by Núñez (2-2, 48th).

If the debates seemed to be balanced until the hour mark, Kevin De Bruyne took advantage of the opposing defensive passivity to quickly serve Aké in the zone of truth, who only had to propel the ball with a kick helmet, poorly evaluated by Kelleher (3-2, 58th). The last half hour seemed more tense between the two formations, between the physical impact in the duels and the words between the players, leading to an argument between Rodri and Fabinho (79th), followed by a bad gesture from Naby Keita on Rico Lewis in the center circle (83rd). Final score: 3 goals to 2 for Manchester City, which is starting its second half of the season perfectly before moving to Leeds for Boxing Day, while Liverpool will play on the lawn of Aston Villa.