Our Defeat To Man City A Big Blow, Says Liverpool Captain

Manchester City earned a comfortable 3-0 win over Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday to move up to second on the Premier League table.

The Cityzens produced an impressive performance to mark Pep Guardiola’s 1000th Premier League game in style.

Erling Haaland missed an early chance to give the hosts the lead from the penalty spot after his effort was saved by Liverpool goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, who had been penalised for a foul on Jeremy Doku.

The Norwegian striker made amends after 29 minutes with a thumping header into the right corner from Matheus Nunes’ cross.

Van Dijk thought he had scored the equaliser for Liverpool, but his effort was ruled out for offside.

Nico Gonzalez compounded Liverpool’s woes when his effort deflected off Virgil Van Dijk on the stroke of half-time to make it 2-0 going into the break.

Jeremy Doku scored a stunning effort in the second half to put icing on the cake for Manchester City and further pile more misery on the defending champions.

Erling Haaland has scored 14 goals in 11 league games for Manchester City this season, the second-most by a player through their team’s opening 11 matches of a Premier League campaign, after Haaland himself in 2022-23 (17 goals).

Reactions have continued to trail the result, with Pep Guardiola describing the victory as a present to mark his 1000th game in the Premier League.

He said, “My players gave me a good present with this performance against the champions. We had to perform good, and many good things happened; they all performed to the highest level.

“Defensively, it was really good. We know their threat is behind with Mo [Salah] and the quality of [Dominik] Szoboszlai and [Florian] Wirtz, and we have incredible energy with our people. Playing at home and winning is good for the international break.

“Gigi [Donnarumma] made the saves he should. Both the full-backs were outstanding. The midfielders gave us a lot of passes and control. Of course, the threat of Jeremy [Doku] was outstanding alongside Erling [Haaland].

“I will go home with my kids, who came for the game. I will go home for a few days and stay with my family.”

Liverpool captain Virgil Van Dijk described the defeat as a big blow.

He said, “In football, the officials are deciding the key decisions, and we have to deal with it on the pitch. There is no point in discussing this from my point of view. The reality is that we lost 3-0, and that is a big blow.

“It doesn’t matter what I say [about the goal] because anything I say will be in the media, and the whole international break will be about my comment on the decision. I just focus on the fact we lost. You guys can debate if it should have stood.

“The first half was difficult, and they were much more comfortable on the ball, and it was difficult for our guys to put pressure on them. I don’t think there was a lot of danger, but Doku had a good game, and it was difficult for Conor [Bradley] in the one-on-one at times. I don’t think we were much in trouble, but we could have done better.

“We had to dig deep in the second half. We got more momentum in possession, but our pressing wasn’t good enough.”

Manchester City have beaten Liverpool for the first time in the Premier League since 1 April 2023, a run of four games without a win.

The victory propelled Manchester City to second on the Premier League log, four points behind table-toppers Arsenal, while Liverpool occupies the eighth position with 18 points from 11 matches.