Haaland breaks Premier League record in Liverpool vs Manchester City
The Premier League weekend clash between Liverpool and Manchester City ended up in a 1-1 draw with lots of entertaining moments throughout the match.
The two English giants faced each other in the 175th PL clash on Saturday in what was an enthralling match through and through.
The build-up to the match as always was very exciting with both clubs having equal chances of winning.
But to everyone’s disappointment, the match ended up in a draw with both sides scoring a goal each. The goalscorers were Erling Haaland and Trent Alexander-Arnold for City and Liverpool respectively.
The game started in the traditional manner with the Blues dominating possession and creating several chances.
The Reds goalkeeper, Alisson, who had a controversial game against Argentina in the international break at Rio, looked sluggish from the start.
He made many mistakes throughout the game, the first being when he gave away the ball to Phil Foden right at the edge of the box.
But the English international shot the poorly which the Brazilian collected safely.
Liverpool vs Manchester City ends up in a draw
On the other end, Ederson saved a strong header from Darwin Nunez. But Alisson was constantly under pressure as Curtis Jones played a back-pass which he had to hurriedly clear upon being pressed by Haaland.
However, the Man City striker did not make any mistakes when he got another chance. The Merseyside goalkeeper slipped as he tried to play an upfield ball.
But unfortunately, it found Nathan Ake and he dribbled through some poor LFC challenges.
Then he played a pass to the Norwegian who took a decent shot but it was too powerful for the Brazilian to stop and went into the net.
This was the no. 9’s 50th goal in PL in just 48 appearances which again broke the record for the fastest to reach the 50-goal mark.
Nunez found the side-netting from a tight angle which somewhat troubled the hosts. Then Foden took a fizzing low shot which Alisson brilliantly saved.
Then another chance came for City with Jeremy Doku carrying the ball from the halfway line to the edge of the box and playing it to Julian Alvarez.
But the Argentine shot it wide restricting themselves from increasing the lead. Liverpool tried to threaten the City goal with a header by Virgil Van Dijk from a corner but Ederson was not bothered.
Alisson on the other side was again under pressure when he spilled the ball and Ruben Dias pushed the ball into the net. But VAR disallowed the goal as Manuel Akanji fouled the goalkeeper.
Liverpool’s equaliser
The Merseysiders were reluctant to save the game and the right opportunity came at the 80th minute. Mohamed Salah laid off the ball right on the edge of the box for Alexander-Arnold.
And the England international took one of the cleanest strikes which ended up in the bottom left corner of Blues net.
The Reds fullback ran to the corner flag putting a finger to his lips in front of the City fans to celebrate.
But Haaland almost scored the winner in the final minute of the game but his header was narrowly wide off of the post.
Trent was announced the Man of the Match for his beautiful equalizer, despite him being vulnerable defensively.
The Belgian winger Doku got the better of him most of the time and most importantly he did not try to stop Ake who eventually assisted Haaland for the opener.
Overall the game was entertaining yet slow. But it is understandable as both the teams’ players came back from international duty. And the early kick-off added to the already pre-existing fatigue.
As both the teams shared a point each, the Blues topped the table with 29 points in 13 games before the Arsenal game. And as for Liverpool, they trail behind City with a point short after the same amount of games played.
