Mohamed Salah had seen his number rise before bringing up Manchester City’s. With passions flaring and City threatening to break up a high-profile encounter, Jürgen Klopp opted for a triple substitution.
There were 72 minutes on the clock, but why did Salah’s number 11 go up on the board? Salah had been Liverpool’s most dangerous player.
It was a mistake because Salah was going nowhere. Klopp told him that on the touchline after Salah had approached him looking dejected and the coach made the changes he really wanted to make, one of which was the introduction of Darwin Nunez, who had dropped to the bench .
Moments later Salah scored the only goal of the game, handing City a first defeat of the Premier League season and reminding everyone that this Liverpool side is far from a spent force. Did anyone seriously believe him, despite his spotty start to the season?
Salah’s goal was a disaster for João Cancelo, who had stepped up to try to turn away Alisson’s clearance but missed his shot. As Salah shot up, one-on-one with Ederson, his mind might have gone back to the 50th minute when he similarly placed himself against the City keeper after Roberto Firmino’s pass.
On that occasion, Ederson produced a fine fingertip save, scraping Salah’s shot over the bar. The Egyptian made no mistake this time, getting his body in the right shape and oozing with conviction. Salah had set Rangers on fire last Wednesday with the fastest hat-trick in Champions League history. now this His mojo is clearly back.
Klopp and Guardiola unhappy with referee after Anfield clash – video
The second part was a thriller and there were many more to come. Pep Guardiola had earlier been furious at Phil Foden’s disallowance of a goal for Erling Haaland’s foul on Fabinho in the build-up. The City manager could not understand why Haaland had been booked for shirt pulling when the referee, Anthony Taylor, had let the game drag on for most of the afternoon.
Fueled by outrage, Guardiola turned to the Liverpool support behind him and directed their celebrations with sarcasm. It was Klopp who would see the red – metaphorically and literally – sent to the stands in the 86th minute after exploding by not conceding a free-kick. Like the rest of Anfield, he felt that Bernardo Silva had hindered Salah.
Moments earlier Thiago Alcântara had got away with the yellow instead of the red for a bad tackle on Rodri – the defense of the Liverpool midfielder was that he slipped – and, before that, Virgil van Dijk had made a saving header while Haaland was hiding behind him. For the first time in a long time it was not the City striker’s day. Liverpool’s defense emerged with honours, with Joe Gomez impressing alongside Van Dijk and James Milner deputizing to good effect at right-back.
Start your evenings with The Guardian’s opinion on the world of football
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertisements and content funded by third parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
What did Klopp lose in the few minutes he was sent off the touchline? Mainly an indifferent work by Núñez, to put it mildly. When he led a three-on-one break at Liverpool, he opted to shoot rather than play Diogo Jota or Salah (the effort was blocked, amid howls from the crowd) and after Jota was injured, he have a chip attempt. everything ends badly when cleaned.
At times, Núñez almost took out Trent Alexander-Arnold, who had returned from injury, and that meant Liverpool couldn’t engineer the breathing space they wanted. That only made the full-time whistle sound sweeter. Klopp returned to the celebrations and can now celebrate the 12th victory of his career against Guardiola. No other coach has nearly as many wins against him.
Klopp has previously said that Liverpool are not in the title race this season and that they remain a long way off the pace set by Arsenal. But that was much more of the same with Salah, who started at the front of Klopp’s 4-2-3-1, outstanding from the outset, running hard at City’s defense and showing his physicality as well.
When he cleared Rúben Dias from a high ball in the 28th minute, he set up Harvey Elliott for a run at Nathan Aké. The City defender, who started on the left of a back three, held firm.
Erling Haaland brings down Fabinho in the build-up to Manchester City’s goal, with a free-kick awarded following a VAR check. Photograph: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC/Getty Images
Earlier Jota had failed to muster the power or direction with a free header from Elliott’s floating cross and Andy Robertson, back in the starting eleven after injury, struck high after a flowing move from Liverpool.
City came on strong in the final 15 minutes of the first half, Haaland twice working with Alisson and heading another chance high. The game was ignited in the 53rd minute after VAR intervened to thwart Foden, who forced the ball past Gomez from a tight angle. Haaland had jumped to free it from Alisson, who appeared to have two hands on the ball.
Immediately afterwards Jota headed wide as he gloriously placed himself after Salah had worked the ball into him. But it was City who came forward, smelling the breakthrough and with Foden pushing them on. Ilkay Gündogan saw a shot go wide; Haaland worked in Alisson after Gündogan had moved away from Fabinho, and Silva lifted a low cross. Salah, however, made the difference.