Salah and Gakpo leave City feeling the Blues
Liverpool 2 Manchester City 0, 1st December 2024
LIVERPOOL 2 (Gakpo 12, Salah 78)
MANCHESTER CITY 0
On Wednesday evening Liverpool reduced the current Champions of Europe and no doubt soon to be crowned FIFA Club World Cup Champions Real Madrid to just one shot on their goal in 90 minutes, a penalty from Kylian Mbappé which Reds goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher beat away to safety. It was a self-inflicted wound of sorts, a rash challenge and mistake from the ever dependable Andy Robertson and only noted here as they repeated this remarkable defensive trick again this evening, and this time to shut out completely the current holders of the FIFA Club World Cup and defending Premier League Champions, Manchester City. It was another self-inflicted wound and thoughtless mistake from an otherwise supreme Virgil van Dijk that allowed City’s Kevin De Bruyne a sight of goal and a shot on target on 82 minutes that was smothered brilliantly at close range by Kelleher to spare his skipper’s blushes and again I note this not in a way to highlight an error from this evening’s “Man of the Match” (pipping his countryman Ryan Gravenberch and a host of other teammates in the Mighty Red shirt of Liverpool) but as a statement of record that over 180 minutes against their two fiercest rivals of recent seasons and the two clubs who have swept all before them (Liverpool aside) for so many years, Arne Slot’s Reds not only beat them both 2–0, but played them both so comprehensively off the park as to only allow each team a singular shot on their goal worthy of note whilst winning so comfortably that each of these teams were thankful to leave Anfield only defeated by 2 goals.
As with Wednesday, and again far from critical words, Liverpool rather let their prey off the hook this evening after a stunning opening to the game that should have seen them three maybe even four goals clear inside the opening twenty minutes. Constant waves of unceasing pressure opened gaps in the City midfield for Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch to maraud through and together with the Reds obvious tactic of playing long, searching balls through and behind a shaky and slow looking City rearguard (Trent Alexander-Arnold to Mo Salah being the prime example), Szoboszlai stung the hands of City goalkeeper Stefan Ortega on 10 minutes, Virgil van Dijk headed against his far post from a corner a minute later and Gary Neville on TV co-commentary could only breathlessly admit the blue half of his home city were on the end of a “Nil Nil Battering”. Seconds later they were a goal behind after Cody Gakpo nudged home Mo Salah’s ridiculous curling cross and as the clock ticked toward 20 minutes, Virgil van Dijk went close once more, this time heading mere inches wide of the far post he headed against minutes earlier. He simply should have scored but the remainder of the first half played out in a rather tame fashion considering Liverpool’s dominance, with City’s Rico Lewis stabbing a feeble shot wide on 38 minutes, their only shot, on or off target, in the entire first half.
As expected, the defending Premier League Champions were a different proposition after the break, playing a far more high tempo game through midfield, quicker to loose balls and with a higher press feeding substitutes Savinho and Jérémy Doku on the wings. His late mistake aside, Virgil van Dijk marshalled a red defensive wall around him that never allowed a vastly improved Manchester City a shot on goal whilst Cody Gakpo was denied a second goal on 50 and 68 minutes and although Mo Salah inexplicably missed a simple chance when one-on-one with Ortega in the City goal on 56 minutes, the Egyptian King sat upon his 21st Century throne of perimeter advertising boards once more after expertly tucking away his 78th minute penalty. 2–0 was the very least Liverpool deserved for such a brilliant performance and with a little over 10 minutes remaining The Kop opened their songbook for such a joyous occasion, jokingly singing that Pep Guardiola would be sacked in the morning before turning away from the facile and returning to the famous Kopite tunes of old with “Show Them The Way To Go Home” (a favourite song of triumph for this author) as well as repeated strains of “We Shall Not Be Moved”.
It’s far, far too early in the season to be making declarations of winning the league, but even I couldn’t resist singing along to this pleasing old school chant of triumphs past. Real Madrid and Manchester City brushed aside in the space of four Anfield days. Top of the Champions League and almost certain qualification for when the tournament really begins next year. 9 points clear at the top of the Premier League and 11 clear of Manchester City. Still in all 4 competitions the Reds entered in August.
I continue to be staggered at how Arne Slot has arrived at Liverpool Football Club, made just one addition to the squad he inherited (an almost constantly injured addition too) and taken Jürgen Klopp’s team on an almost perfect run of 18 wins, 1 draw and just 1 defeat in his first 20 games in all competitions.
What an amazing time this is to a Liverpool fan.
Again.
Arne’s Afterword
“Playing against Real Madrid, playing against Man City, teams that have been and are so good, with managers that have won so many trophies, it’s always nice to come out in both situations as a winner. But the reason why these teams won so many things is that they weren’t able to win once or twice, they were able to win every three days. So, we’re really happy with these two wins, but we also understand if we want to achieve more than this then winning once or twice — even against these big teams — is not enough to win anything in the end of the season”.
“It’s all about consistency until the end of the season, keeping the players fit, keeping them playing with this much energy. And like you probably saw today, I only had five defenders available. So to win something in the end, there’s such a long way to go and so many challenges to take. But it’s good that we are capable of winning against these teams in our own style”.
“I’ve experienced already a few nice moments here as a manager — Wednesday night was definitely one of them. But I think today stood out when it comes to the energy we delivered on the pitch but also the energy the fans delivered for us”.
Thanks for reading. I pen my thoughts on every Liverpool game and in recent seasons, with the addition of numerous pieces of retro writing on Reds games of the past, I’ve curated and created the following two self-published books:
"A final word from The Boss" - link to Amazon
"Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" - link to Amazon
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.