December 1, 2024, 2:49 PM
December 1, 2024, 2:49 PM
Years of repressed revenge claimed in a week. In a matter of days, Liverpool have settled their pending scores with Real Madrid, whom they dynamited in the Champions League (2-0), and with Manchester City, whom they frayed to put them eleven points ahead in the Premier League with a 2-0 victory as well.
The ‘Reds’, after ending their bête noire in Europe during the week, took revenge on the team that beat them in two leagues by one point, aggravating the crisis of a Pep Guardiola who has not won in the last seven games (six defeats and a draw) and that he went out to Anfield with a scared team.
Liverpool smelled of blood. He knew that Manchester City is hurt, touched, overwhelmed by an unprecedented situation for Guardiola’s team. He came out to overwhelm him, to eat him, to put pressure on every ball that Stefan Ortega put on the floor and to harass the center backs so that they didn’t have time to string together passes.
It took City twenty minutes to get out of their own half and in that time Liverpool were able to score goals.
Virgil Van Dijk ran into a post with a header and another, minutes later, missed the post. Between his two headshots, Salah appeared to agree with those who ask for his renewal.
The Egyptian, “more inside than outside”, in his words, faced his pair and put a cross-shot to the far post for Gakpo to jump in and finish the play. Even though the goal was from the Dutch, the stands sang for Salah, their Egyptian king who may have his last months at Anfield.
The goal did not wake up City, rarely as lost as this Sunday, and Trent Alexander-Arnold, who returned after three weeks out due to injury, also touched a post with a shot from outside the area.
With a little more aim, Liverpool should have left this match dead at half-time. It was his chance to avenge all the leagues that City took from him by a minimal difference.
In the second half, Arne Slot’s team continued to forgive. Salah had two chances for the double, including a one-on-one against Stefan Ortega who incomprehensibly sent over the crossbar, while Alexander-Arnold had the 2-0 blocked from point-blank range.
Cody Gakpo couldn’t either, setting up Kyle Walker and shooting into the German goalkeeper’s hands, in what was his last chance before being replaced by Darwin Núñez.
In this match, Slot chose to use Luis Díaz as ‘9’, in the position in which he scored a hat trick against Bayer Leverkusen, and the Colombian responded when he returned to the left wing, already with Darwin as a reference.
He stole a ball in the pressure, faced Ortega and was knocked down by the German. Clear penalty and Salah, from the eleven-meter spot, said it very clearly: “You have to renew me.”
Liverpool will not be able to find a better occupant for its right wing than the Egyptian, the player who has generated the most goals (18) in this Premier League and a differential footballer, no matter how much his contract runs out and he is already on his way to 33 years old. .
With this victory, Liverpool have eleven points over Guardiola’s team, nine over Chelsea and Arsenal, who are currently their direct pursuers.
What seemed like a challenge for Guardiola is now, above all, a problem. Only two teams have overcome such a difference in the Premier, Arsenal and Manchester United in the 1990s.
Guardiola finished the match with chants of “they’re going to fire you in the morning” and reminding the ‘red’ fans that he has won six Premier Leagues since he arrived at City, one for Liverpool. The fans dedicated ‘olés’ to him in every possession of his team.
