Liverpool remain one point off top spot in the Premier League after their draw with Manchester City at the weekend.
The Reds were held to a 2-2 stalemate with Man City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, with Diogo Jota and Sadio Mane on the scoresheet. Liverpool will face City again this Saturday in the FA Cup semi-final.
Jurgen Klopp’s side now have seven league matches left to play in the top flight, and will be looking to leapfrog Man City in that time. Their next league fixture is not until April 19 when the face Manchester United at Anfield.
Plenty of national media outlets were at the Etihad to watch Liverpool’s draw with Man City. Here is a round-up of what they had to say.
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Jason Burt, via The Telegraph
“After all the sound and fury and the breathless brilliance it is as you were. A single point separates Manchester City and Liverpool, just as it did before kick off, but that does not remotely do justice to a contest that, had there been a winner, would have been the game of the century. Such was its astonishing quality.
“It was billed as a title decider but in the end all that was decided, or rather confirmed, is that these are undoubtedly the best two sides not just in the Premier League but in Europe. No-one, not in Spain, Germany or anywhere else, can challenge that. In England, with seven league games to go, it looks to be going to the wire and it would be a shock if they do not meet again in the Champions League Final next month.
“On 83 minutes Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp hugged and the two managers know the score. They embraced again at full time. It was that intense and was an acknowledgement of how highly they regard each other while before he conducted his media duties Klopp went over to acknowledge the Liverpool fans who had been held behind.
“The managers were at it again, shaking hands and high-fiving, as they did their round of television interviews. They were seeking out a kindred spirit, seeking out affirmation.
“There can be no doubt that a lesser team than Liverpool would have wilted under City’s mesmeric play, driven on by the outstanding Kevin De Bruyne and aided by Bernardo Silva, but even then City should have won it in injury-time with substitute Riyad Mahrez erring as he tried to chip Alisson. It sailed over the crossbar and Guardiola held his head.
“Little wonder though that Klopp calls Liverpool the ‘mentality monsters’ because they had to draw on huge reserves of strength to withstand the onslaught and still had the ability to threaten to take the points themselves.
“Like a champion boxer they came off the ropes swinging and scored a second equaliser just 46 seconds into the second-half that left Guardiola slumped in his chair as if he had been caught by a haymaker. No other team would have reacted as they did.”
Martin Samuel, via the Mail Online
“Liverpool will probably have been happier, given they could have been four points adrift and Manchester City were the better side.
“Yet there was something in the handshake at the final whistle between Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola, something about their smiles of appreciation, that suggested neither party was greatly displeased to share two points.
“The title will now be resolved elsewhere. Perhaps on the road, perhaps with points dropped at home. The bright side for Manchester City is that, win all their games, and there is literally nothing Liverpool can do. That was how it was resolved the last time it was this close; and either club is capable of going on such a run.
“Yet Guardiola will also know this was opportunity lost. Riyad Mahrez had two chances to have it won late on when there would have been no way back for Liverpool. Not a third time.”
Henry Winter, via The Times
“Advantage Manchester City. Pep Guardiola’s champions went relentlessly for the win here at a raucous Etihad but the draw suits City more than Liverpool, keeping them a point clear and with the more negotiable run-in. The real winners were a packed Etihad and a huge global audience who were treated to a magnificent Premier League match full of touches of class.
“Kevin De Bruyne and Gabriel Jesus, City’s goalscorers, were both superb while Jordan Henderson typically gave everything for Liverpool until tiring. The opening was breathless, starting with a De Bruyne goal, and the pace rarely dipped, lending style and substance to all the pre-match hype. City were first to show.
“Brimming with pace and intensity, Guardiola’s players tore into Liverpool, doing to the visitors what Jürgen Klopp’s side so often do to others. Liverpool needed all their resilience to emerge with a point. Because City harried Liverpool, pressing them, pushing them back and even Virgil van Dijk looked uncomfortable at times. De Bruyne raced from midfield to press Alisson, setting the early tone. Quick pressing, quick free kicks, quick transition and quick thinking: City were a split-second sharper than their title rivals.
“Guardiola very deliberately targeted the space in behind Andy Robertson in particular with Jesus and Kyle Walker storming down the right. Jesus played up against Robertson, looking to flick the ball inside or simply turning and taking the Scot on for pace. When Jesus moved inside, Walker flew past on the overlap. Robertson needed more protection and was eventually booked when catching De Bruyne, who had joined in the City right-sided raiding party.
“City could have been ahead even before De Bruyne’s sixth-minute strike. They were breaking so rapidly, Walker launching a counter with a header to send De Bruyne through the middle. City’s captain played the ball right to Jesus, who escaped Robertson and crossed in for Raheem Sterling. Alisson ran out, and saved.”
David Hytner, via The Guardian
“The talk has been of trebles and quadruples, of a historic kind of plunder and, plainly, something will have to give – only not yet. Manchester City will probably be the happier with this draw as it keeps them above Liverpool, with one more Premier League game chalked off, although Pep Guardiola’s team had the chances to have been out of sight at half-time ... and to have pinched it at the end.
“Liverpool saw their 10-game winning streak in the league come to an end – the sequence that had helped them to cut City’s lead at the top to a single point. In January it had stood at 14, albeit with City having played two extra matches. “A fake lead,” Guardiola had called it. But similarly Liverpool will reason that this was not the worst result for them. Jürgen Klopp did not look too unhappy when he walked over to the travelling fans about 15 minutes after full-time to remove his baseball cap and perform a sweeping bow.
“There was pulsating drama as both teams played with trademark drive and slickness – particularly City – with gaps at the back a consequence. Liverpool showed their courage to equalise twice, the second from Sadio Mané at the beginning of the second half eventually serving to keep their dream of four trophies alive, the Carabao Cup having already been won. But how Liverpool lived on their nerves in the final minutes.”
Paul Gorst, via Liverpool Echo
"Was there any way it was ever going to live up to the enormous hype? In fairness, this absorbing, captivating 2-2 draw gave it a fair old go.
"Talked up to within an inch of its life this week, Liverpool's trip to Manchester City was billed as the biggest Premier League contest in years. In an era where hyperbole is king, it was still an accurate description as these two titans prepared to collide at the Etihad.
"Certainly in Liverpool's case it was true as they looked to somehow go above a team who can probably now justify the tag as the Reds' 'arch-rivals' in 2022. Title dreams appeared to be left in ruins at the turn of the year, so just to be in this position represents quite the turnaround.
"Manchester United and Everton will always evoke the emotions of the Anfield faithful most fervently, but City are coming up on the rails as far as that goes now.
"Debates during the build-up raged over just whether these two teams now represented the biggest rivalry of the Premier League era and while there are those who deny it that status because of its apparent lack of that key ingredient known as 'needle', there are surely few who can make an argument for any other based on the sheer high-strung quality of the protagonists involved.
"In the end, like it was at Anfield back in early October, both teams were forced to settle for a point. It is a result that does little for those searching for a definitive conclusion to the destiny of the league title."
