The top game of the Premier League ends with a 1-1 draw. The Liverpool home fans tried to create a devilish atmosphere with the powerful battle song “Allez Allez Allez”. This was only enough for her team to equalize with a penalty.
Coach Jürgen Klopp is suffering with his team; he can only crack the defensive line of his rival Josep Guardiola once.
Carl Recine / Reuters
In what could be the last coaching duel between long-term rivals Jürgen Klopp and Josep Guardiola, there could not have been a fairer result than a draw. And so Liverpool FC and Manchester City consequently drew 1-1 on Sunday evening. The winner of the clash was a team that wasn’t even involved in the game: Arsenal FC. In the three-way battle for the championship title, the Londoners are the new league leaders thanks to the previous day’s 2-1 win against Brentford.
Arsenal are level on points with Liverpool, but have the better goal difference. Manchester City are third, one point behind, and play Arsenal at home in three weeks. This means that the Premier League is heading for a similarly dramatic finish as in 2014, when there was a long-distance duel between Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea.
At that time, City prevailed by two points over Liverpool. As leaders, the Reds had lost the title against Chelsea in their own stadium with three rounds to go. Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard initiated that defeat; He was the last man to slip and put the ball into the path of an opponent. His mistake became as famous as Liverpool’s first league title in 2020 after a thirty-year drought.
The city goalie Ederson causes a penalty and is injured
With the global appeal of the Premier League, the 30th duel between Klopp and Guardiola attracted a lot of attention from the football world. The city newspaper “Liverpool Echo” welcomed all supporters, including many foreign visitors, with the self-confident but hard to dismiss headline: “Game of the Year”. The performance of both teams actually lived up to the high standards.
The top game resembled a best-of version of the impressive duels between Liverpool and Manchester City from previous years. The powerful atmosphere drove the players to peak performance on the pitch – and beyond. Liverpool fans tried again and again to create a devilish atmosphere with the powerful battle song “Allez Allez Allez”. With this chant, the Reds overran the favored Citizens in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Champions League. But this time they were prepared.
Guardiola nominated the fastest defense and the most ball-proof offense for the starting eleven. His team played coolly in the rain and deservedly took the lead through John Stones from a corner. With controlled ball relays, City extinguished the opposition’s attempts to ignite fire – until the pressure became too great as the game wore on. The trigger for the 1-1 score in the 50th minute was a serious bad pass in the City defense and a foul by goalkeeper Ederson. Alexis Mac Allister scored the penalty. Ederson was injured when he fouled and had to be replaced by Stefan Ortega.
Klopp and Guardiola had a long heart-to-heart – it looked like they were saying goodbye
The game now developed into an open exchange of blows. City hit the post and crossbar, Liverpool failed several times due to Ortega’s spectacular reaction and could have been awarded another penalty in the last action of the game. City’s Jérémy Doku first hit the ball with his leg outstretched and then hit Mac Allister’s chest. After the final whistle, Klopp confronted the strong referee Michael Oliver on the pitch. Previously, Klopp and Guardiola had loved each other deeply – for longer than ever before in their years together. It looked like goodbye.