Manchester City 3-0 Liverpool
by Gene Sylvester
at the City of Manchester Stadium
MANCHESTER CITY hosted Liverpool at the City of Manchester stadium in the final game of the weekend with both teams incentivised by the dropping off two points by league leaders Arsenal 24 hours prior to kick off in Manchester, and it was the men in blue who took full advantage with a dominant 3-0 win over the reigning Premier League Champions.
The home side carried all of the threat in the opening period of the game, with most of that threat coming from the unplayable Jeremy Doku who won his side an 8th-minute penalty after his quick feet caused confusion between Conor Bradley and Ibrahima Konate, who looked like they had the situation under control.
But a quick shimmy from the City wide-man saw him escape the clutches of both, before jinking past the challenge of Giorgi Mamardashvili in the Liverpool goal, with the keeper catching the spritely Belgian and bringing him down in the box, with the Liverpool defence then clearing the ball to safety.
VAR advised referee Chris Kavanagh to go to the screen to review the incident with the referee then pointing to the spot.
Erling Haaland stepped up to take the penalty, but Mamardashvili used every bit of his 6ft 6 inches to get down to his left and palm the effort away from goal.
Twenty minutes later, City’s striker made up for his penalty miss when Matheus Nunes whipped in a cross to the far post, with the Norwegian striker beating Konate in the air and heading his effort back across goal into the far corner of the net with Mamardashvili rooted to the spot.
Arne Slot’s men thought they had clawed themselves back into the match, 10 minutes after going behind, when a Mohamed Salah corner was met brilliantly by Reds captain Virgil van Dijk whose header found the corner of the net.
But VAR intervened, cutting Liverpool’s celebrations short, with the officials in Stockley Park spotting Andrew Robertson in an offside position, with the Liverpool left-back ducking under the flight path of the ball as it went into the net beyond Gianluigi Donnarumma’s dive in the City goal.
On the stroke of half-time, Liverpool’s fortunes took another hammer blow, as Nico Gonzalez 20 yard shot took a deflection off Van Dijk’s boot, wrong-footing Mamardashvili and flying into the net past the Liverpool keeper.
The second half started in a similar pattern to the first with the home side on the front foot, and with the impressive Doku looking like the most dangerous threat on the pitch.
A trademark shimmy from the wide man saw him slip through the middle of Bradley and Ryan Gravenberch before firing a curler straight into the arms of Mamardashvili.
Doku’s performance was not lost on Liverpool boss Arne Slot when he stated “Doku gave us a lot of problems today.”
This was probably an understatement, such was the impressive nature of the Belgian’s performance.
Man of the match Doku, capped his stunning display with a goal of his own in the 62nd minute when a Nico O’Reilly run down the left saw the left-back square to the wide-man who was on the edge of the box.
The Belgian again threw a shimmy and sent a curling shot around Konate and beyond the Liverpool keeper’s dive to wrap up the match for the Citizens.
Following the match, City coach Pep Guardiola heaped praise on his winger for his performance.
“He has a special attribute — he dribbles. And today he was aggressive with and without the ball. He played an outstanding game.”