Liverpool and Manchester City are teams with exciting and at times, brilliant attacking games, but with dreadful defences. A recipe perfect for a football match filled with a lot of great scoring opportunities. This game lived up to its billing.
There were five reasonable appeals for a penalty and many missed chances from close range, the game was not short of chances. On numerous occasions, low balls whipped into the box by Manchester City looked unbelievably threatening. In one of the greatest chances of the game, the ball went into the box, bobbled around off a couple of defenders before falling straight to De Bruyne, who then hit the ball quite rashly right at the post. If only the Liverpool defence could be more dominating in their own box, then chances like that, chances that really ought to be easily converted, would be nonexistent. The world class players of Manchester City overwhelmed the okay Liverpool defence.
Liverpool got most of their success on the counter attack. Balls in the midfield would be collected by the midfielders and they would at times make advancing runs up the pitch and then they would distribute the ball into the forwards. The entire midfield, comprised of Wijnaldum, Can and Lallana, played well. If any Manchester City player had the ball within the middle of Liverpool’s half, those aforementioned players were quick in getting to and subsequently taking the ball. Liverpool’s attack needs the football at their feet to make things happen, so the good play by midfielders would certainly facilitate that cause.
Manchester City looked very good, other than the inability to swiftly stop the Liverpool counter attack. Their passing movement was what you would expect from a team managed by Pep Guardiola, fluent and effective, but they will be disappointed with their inefficiency in front of goal, even more so than Liverpool, as they had more chances. With a bit of luck, De Bruyne’s shot, and Silva’s volley, a chance which was created similarly to De Bruyne’s, would have gone into the back of the net.
To conclude, both teams could well have won the game and they also could well have lost the game. Lallana’s miss from short range was absolutely terrible. The chances that were created must be taken if both teams wish to succeed more.
Feature image credit: anfieldjustice
