London (dpa)
Manchester City coach Josep Guardiola seemed to regret his team’s wasting the opportunity to kill the competition for the English Premier League title this season, following its 2-2 draw with its guest Liverpool, at the top of the 32nd stage of the competition.
Guardiola indicated that the result of the match left Liverpool “alive” in the title race.
Manchester City missed their lead twice in the match, through Belgian Kevin De Bruyne and Brazilian Gabriel Jesus, following Liverpool tied Diogo Jota and Senegalese Sadio Mane, to end the meeting with the same result as the first leg match that took place between the two teams at Anfield, the stronghold of the Red Team in October. the past.
The competition for the title between the two teams remained unchanged, as Manchester City remained at the top with 74 points, one point ahead of its closest rivals, Liverpool, so that the fierce competition between them continued 7 stages before the end of the season.
Guardiola believes that his team had the opportunity to finish the race for the title – in practice – following his team imposed its dominance over most of the first half.
Guardiola said, “It was a great match from both sides, and every team is trying to win every match in all competitions.” I had a feeling that with this result we missed an opportunity, and I feel like we left them alive.
And Guardiola added: But I told the team I don’t want one second of sadness. I am very happy and happy with the way we played. When you do a lot of good things, the sadness is there, but I said to the same (forget it). We did very well and unfortunately we mightn’t win. Overall the performance was good, I was happy and pleased with my team.
As a result, Guardiola stressed that the race is still wide open and there is no room for error.
The Spanish coach said: “Win, lose or draw will not end it, I had the feeling before, but both teams knew that the points of the meeting are very important and we played for that.” We know that at the moment if we lose any game, we will not be champions, and we also know that if we lose points we will not be champions.
Guardiola concluded: “They should also win all the games, but today all the City and Liverpool fans will see that both teams tried to win the game.” I think it’s good to say that. I would watch the punches, we would attack them and they would attack us with our weapons, which is good for football.
Manchester (Archyde.com)
Manchester City maintained its lead in the English Premier League, one point behind Liverpool, following they tied 2-2 in an exciting and enjoyable summit at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
The match came at the level of high expectations, and Kevin De Bruyne advanced with a goal for City following five minutes, as he hit a powerful ball from the edge of the penalty area that changed direction and entered goalkeeper Alison’s goal.
City, who relied on advanced pressing, in the same style as their opponents, the visiting team, might have taken an early lead, but Raheem Sterling wasted alone by goalkeeper Alisson from a superb position.
But with fans still excited and feeling Jurgen Klopp’s side in decline, Liverpool showed their strength and Diogo Jota equalized following eight minutes, taking advantage of a Trent Alexander-Arnold pass.
The pace of play was very high, and the momentum shifted to City, who took the lead once more with a Gabriel Jesus goal in the 36th minute.
Liverpool removed a corner kick to reach Joao Cancelo on the left side and the Portuguese full-back sent a cross towards Jesus on the right side, and the Brazilian striker touched the ball inside the net of his compatriot Alisson.
This was the first time that Liverpool had fallen behind in the result, having reached the break in the league this season.
But Liverpool did not need long to equalize, as Sadio Mane received a superb pass from his colleague Mohamed Salah following 46 seconds of the second half and fired a powerful shot into the goal.
City were shocked by this goal, but Pep Guardiola’s team recovered and regained control of the midfield and was close to winning.
City’s Sterling put the ball into the net in the 63rd minute, following a superb pass from De Bruyne, but the VAR overturned the former Liverpool player’s goal for offside by a narrow margin.
In the 90th minute, substitute Riyad Mahrez hit a free kick that touched the post, and in added time, the Algerian player received an amazing pass from De Bruyne, went straight to the goal and shot a falling ball just above the goal.
The two teams came out with the same result in the first leg in October at Anfield, and this is the first time that City have scored first without winning a league match this season.
The balance of City, which is nominated to win its fourth title in five seasons, is 74 points from 31 games, one point behind second-placed Liverpool, who fought the same number, and there are seven rounds left in front of each team.
it causes Roberto Firmino Liverpool panicked ahead of Sunday’s Premier League clash with Manchester City due to a lack of training.
The two teams are scheduled to meet on Sunday evening at the Etihad Stadium, in the top of the thirty-second round of the English Premier League.
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Manchester City currently leads the Premier League table with 73 points, just one point behind the second-placed Reds.
And the English “Liverpool Echo” network reported that Firmino was not among the players who were present at the AXA training center today, in preparation for the match once morest Sky Blue.
Jurgen Klopp, head coach of the Leferballearlier in the day announced his expectation to choose from a full-strength squad for the weekend trip to Etihad.
But Firmino’s absence from the club’s photos in the last training session raised some doubts regarding the possibility of the Brazilian’s absence.
The forward came off the bench to play the final 29 minutes of Tuesday’s 3-1 Champions League quarter-final first-leg win over Benfica, having played the full 90 minutes in last weekend’s 2-0 Premier League victory at home to Watford.
Firmino has suffered from three separate muscle problems this season, and he was also absent from the stadiums due to infection with the Corona virus during the Christmas period.
Liverpool plays an important match once morest Manchester City on Sunday in the English Premier League, with a difference of one point between the two teams, with Pep Guardiola’s team leading the standings.
Did not score Mohamed Salah Liverpool since February – should Jurgen Klopp care regarding the Egyptian striker’s level ahead of the club’s crucial trip to Manchester City on Sunday?
Liverpool continues to chase Manchester City at the top of the English Premier League, as it trails it by one point, with only 8 games remaining this season.
And “Sky Sports” published a lengthy report to discuss the level of Mohamed Salah before the upcoming match once morest Manchester City.
Liverpool travel to Manchester City with question marks hanging over Salah, who despite topping the Premier League’s top scorer chart, having scored 20 goals in 28 games so far this season, has looked lackluster in recent weeks.
Salah still has to agree to a new contract at Anfield, despite his current contract expiring in the summer of 2023, while he recently suffered a double grief with his country following losing the African Nations Cup final on penalties to Senegal, then failed to qualify for the World Cup and lost Others in front of the same opponent.
All this has led to a lot of uncertainty recently over Salah’s future on Merseyside, plus a relative loss of form in front of goal means all eyes will be on the player on Big Sunday.
With all these factors, Sky Sports asked, should Liverpool fans be concerned regarding Mohamed Salah?
Has Salah really lost his offensive advantage?
When Salah entered Chelsea’s normally insurmountable defense to score a contender for the goal of the season once more, at Stamford Bridge at the turn of the year, there were few attackers in world football he might reasonably claim to be his equal.
The 29-year-old had enjoyed an impressive first half of the season becoming the first Liverpool player to net 10 consecutive games when he scored a hat-trick in Liverpool’s 5-0 win at Manchester United in October.
Salah set a record number of goals for the Reds, doing so in fewer matches – 151 – than any other player at the club and then headed to the Africa Cup of Nations in early January.
However, since returning from the tournament at the beginning of February, it has looked like little struggle for Salah, who scored five goals in 10 matches before the international break in March – but three of them were from penalties, while, incredibly, the striker who… He has usually had a sharp edge of scoring in open play since Liverpool’s victory over Norwich on February 19.
Not only that, but he did Jürgen Klopp He also replaced his star player following 69 minutes and 61 minutes in each of Liverpool’s last two matches once morest Watford and Benfica, respectively.
However, Klopp insists there is nothing to worry regarding with Salah, who is just going through a fleeting phase following the recent hard workload of both club and country, and the German coach said recently when asked regarding Salah’s level: “Maybe he didn’t score from open play or anything. Another, maybe a penalty here or there, that’s not very important.”
He added: “The level of performance is important to me, and the threat it poses to other teams is how he brings the players together in the moments when he gets the ball, maybe two or three players go to him in these moments.”
He continued: “Sometimes he can decide in a better way, no doubt regarding that, and pass the ball faster and all these things, but it is a difficult period for Sadio (Mane) and Salah, with the African Cup and back to us immediately once more with all the matches.”
The one thing that cannot be denied is that Salah has the potential to play a lot of matches at this point in the season.
The striker, who is rarely injured, has played in 28 of his 30 Premier League games so far this season, while also making appearances in all nine Champions League matches, as well as winning the League Cup final over Chelsea, with a total of 3,156 minutes.
But this does not take into account his appearance with the Egyptian national team, which he represented in both the African Nations Cup matches and this year’s World Cup qualifiers.
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Salah in statistics – what do the numbers say?
Return is often limited to Leferball On the arrival of Klopp and his signings with Virgil van Dijk and Alisson, but there is also Mohamed Salah, he joined the Reds for £39.5m in the summer of 2017, and the team proceeded to secure a second consecutive place in the top four and reached the Champions League final that season .
Since making his debut for the club, Salah has scored 115 Premier League goals – some 15 more than Harry Kane, and provided 43 assists, in 14,470 minutes.
Only three players provided more assists: Kevin De Bruyne and teammates Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson, who also became key players in the first team during Salah’s first season at Anfield.
Al Masry continues to dominate the charts as well, this season, Salah is leading the way once more with 20 league goals.
What makes his comeback even more special is how it was achieved by a player primarily positioned on the right flank.
Salah is known for strength and has not started on 18 of his potential 182 Premier League matches since joining the club.
With commitments with Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations meaning he has now started 35 matches for club and team in all competitions and there has been a dip.
Salah averaged 0.71 goals without penalties per game until early December, but that percentage has fallen three times to just 0.21 since then, and the same holds true for assists as well.
However, his expected returns on both measures have either remained stable or have actually improved, indicating that his clinical superiority has waned since the holidays.
Salah’s penalty kick rate has hit rock bottom for the first time this season, but the sudden interruption is not a cause for concern following such a strong start to the season, and he wouldn’t rule out restoring his form once morest Manchester City.
Can Klopp afford to rest Mohamed Salah once morest Manchester City?
All this means that Klopp now has a huge dilemma in Sunday’s encounter at Al Ittihad – stick to his faulty striker, or sit on the bench and go with his most brilliant men?
Former Liverpool striker John Aldridge believes Salah should start the match on the benchHe told Sky Sports: “If you are at your level, Mohamed Salah will not join the team, as much as he is good, as much as he is wonderful, as much as we love him, at his current level, he is struggling.”
Klopp now has more attacking options at his disposal following the additions of Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz, meaning he might practically start defining the title on Sunday without the Premier League’s top scorer, although it would still be a massive gamble on his part.
He said, “I think the gamble for me will be between Mohamed Salah and Kylian Mbappe, they will be the ones who will divide people now in the way that Messi and Ronaldo divide people for many years.”
“But I think Salah has had the season, and the numbers he’s got compared to anyone else in the Premier League, which is the best league in the world right now, just shows how far ahead of anyone else in the Premier League he is.”