Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has taken another three points from Anfield, one of the toughest grounds he has visited in his career, and has spoken about how tough it is to go there.
The Cityzens played a good game for much of the afternoon, but fell behind after Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai rifled an unstoppable free kick past Gianluigi Donnarumma in the City goal.
That woke Arne Slot’s men up, but City rallied to come back to a 2 – 1 win thanks to a Bernardo Silva strike and an Erling Haaland penalty. City also saw a stoppage time goal from Rayan Cherki scored from the halfway line that would have made the final score 3 – 1 ruled out by VAR. The referee’s rationale was that Szoboszlai pulled Haaland in the breakaway counter and deserved a red card, which was more important than the goal.
It did not change the outcome for the visitors, however, who smiled at the end of the match and took home all three points. It was City’s third win at Anfield in the Premier League era, and their first ever double over the defending champions since the 1936/37 season.
Speaking after the game, Guardiola said: “It’s so difficult. Anfield is Anfield. The tradition, the history, the crowd. “It looks smaller, tighter, the pitch does not look the size of the Etihad. The players they have and everything. “Of course we would be disappointed [if we lost] and the questions would be it’s over.
“Six is better than nine but it’s still a lot considering Arsenal and how strong they are in all departments.” Haaland, who also ended his goal drought, spoke about the feeling of picking up points from a very difficult ground.
“Incredible feeling!” began Haaland in an interview after the game. “Incredible feeling when Bernardo scored. I was hoping he would celebrate a little bit more but he wanted another goal, which I loved. In the end it’s incredible feelings.
“I was really nervous right before taking it [the penalty]. All my thoughts were getting it in the back of the net, which I couldn’t do in the home game so I’ve been practicing. I’m just happy that I scored.
“We know how difficult it is here. We saw in the second half they played good football. We managed to keep them away.
“And look at Gigio with an incredible save from Mac Allister. For me it was out of this world. It shows why he’s the best in the world.”
