0 voters
Unused Subs: Kelleher, Konate, Keita, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Minamino, Tsimikas, Williams
68’ Roberto FIRMINO on, Diogo JOTA off
76’ Joe GOMEZ on, James MILNER off
59’ Sadio MANE (Assist Mohamed SALAH)
76’ Mohamed SALAH (Assist Curtis JONES)
Meh.
An unchanged lineup for the Tricky Reds today, with Jürgen keeping faith with the same starting eleven that thrashed Porto midweek. Millie continued at right back and Bobby started on the bench, despite his brace of goals midweek.
The Reds started brightly, playing with a bright- if not electrifying- tempo and passing the ball around well. This only lasted about ten minutes though and City soon began to not only gain a foothold in the match but come to dominate it.
Silva picked Henderson’s pocket in the twentieth minute, evaded our entire midfield and released Foden down City’s left; fortunately, Alisson spread himself well to block. Our bearded Brazilian had earlier given the ball away with a poor clearance but Jesus wasn’t able to capitalise.
Cancelo played in De Bruyne but the Belgian slashed his shot wide; Dias was booked for hauling down Jota as the home side tried to launch a rare counter attack. Foden went down in the box after a clumsy challenge from Milner; after a brief VAR check, no penalty was confirmed. The initial contact had been fractionally outside the box but I’ve certainly seen them given.
De Bruyne sent a diving header o er when unmarked at the far post then had a shot on the turn blocked by the excellent Matip; Virgil then got in the way of another shot from the busy Belgian.
Jesus slid a brilliant pass towards the underlapping Walker in the area. The right back tried to cut it back to Grealish, but Matip stepped across to make an important interception. Milner was booked seconds later as he stopped Foden from breaking.
Ederson then played a spectacular pass to Foden, perfectly flighted to fall in the young attacker’s path, but Alisson again did well.
As the players trudged off for their halftime oranges, it had been a half dominated by the visitors, after a slow start, and, quite frankly, the Reds were lucky to go in level.
The halftime Haartrockner treatment clearly had the desired effect, as the Reds started the second stanza far more briskly. Jota started running at the heart of the City defence and the visitors were on the back foot. Cancelo was booked for tripping Milner and the Portuguese full back was then easily beaten by Salah. Mo played a beautifully weighted pass to Mané, who had run off the back shoulder of Dias, and Sadio struck it first time past the onrushing Ederson. 1-0 to the good guys in the 59th minute.
The home side were now in the ascendancy and Mo had a free kick deflected wide off the wall, while a couple of other promising breaks broke down around the edge of the box.
But then Jesus cut in from the right, curled a lovely ball to the unmarked Foden on the opposite side of the penalty area and the youngster arrowed an unstoppable shot back across Alisson and into the far corner. 1-1 after 69 minutes.
Milner was lucky to stay on the pitch after tripping Bernardo Silva; it should clearly have resulted in a second yellow card for the veteran and Guardiola was fuming at the officials. Sterling immediately replaced Grealish and Jota was replaced by Firmino.
And then a moment of brilliance from Mo made it 2-1. Collecting the ball from Jon s, he beat Cancelo and Laporte before firing a right-footed shot past Ederson and in off the far post. Magical stuff. What made it even better was that Guardiola was booked for his continued remonstrations. Gomez came on for Milner.
The lead didn’t last long, however, as five minutes later Foden squared the ball from the left and it deflected to De Bruyne on the edge of the box. His first-time shot would have been saved by Alisson but took a deflection off Matip and sailed past the already committed goalkeeper. 2-2 after 81 minutes.
As we entered the last five minutes, a short free kick routine almost out the hosts in front again. Mo’s chipped delivery to the far post evaded everyone and fell to the unmarked Fabinho but Rodri somehow got back to block the bald Brazilian’s effort before it crossed the line.
Four minutes of stoppage time saw a Jesus effort charged down by Robertson and another City counter attack break down with De Bruyne’s sloppy pass.
And that was that. Given that we twice led, it feels like two points dropped but, having said that, we were pinned against the ropes in the first half and Milner was lucky not to be sent off after the break.
Next up, after another pointless international break, is a trip to Watford for the Saturday lunchtime kickoff in two weeks’ time. Our hosts will have a new manager by then, having sacked Xisco today, and may we’ll be buoyed by the fabled new manager bounce factor. We shall see.
HOTM: Torquator Tasso. Today’s rare Horse Of The Match award goes to the bright chestnut German colt, who won the one hundredth running of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris this afternoon. Only the third horse from his country to land European racing’s most prestigious prize, he was returned at the rewarding odds of 80-1. I hope that our German friends had a few euros on him.
Feels like a loss
Great game of football. Two great goals from Mane and Salah. Milner with more lives the Morris the Feckin’ Cat. Have to take that point.
A point we absolutely did not deserve.
Some of the work in midfield was a complete shambles, second best in every 50/50. Sloppy in possession. Allowed City to waltz through the middle at will.
Not good enough at all.
After enduring the first half it feels like a win to me
Oh and Milner should have been sent.
A great second half and Fabinho should have won it. Salah was excellent as was Matip and Alisson. Midfield was poor today especially in the first half but at the end I suppose a draw was a fair result. Onwards and upwards.
Matip by far MotM. Without him first half ends 3-0.
We had no midfield today. Can’t understand why Klopp made no changes there.
Yeah after Salahs goal I’m disappointed that we couldn’t hold on. And Fab at the end could have won it. Oh well at HT I’d have taken a point and Millie did well in2nd half.
First half was a shambles. Some good moments in the second half but simply not good enough in the end. Positioning at times poor. Defence certainly questionable. Unable to manage or see the game out. Two points dropped.
It is magnificent by Salah…What a performance to nearly drag us to a win. Alas, our midfield balance is really bad since the Brentford game. We need to sort it us fast or else we will have many days like this where our midfield is dominated…
Think we got away with one there tbh. Thoroughly outplayed in the first half, so many of our lads had off days. The midfield in particular was woeful, and how Milner didn’t get sent off I don’t know. A couple of bits of magic from Mo and some great keeping from Alisson earned us that point.
Wijnaldum for Jones seems a step backwards, and we were light in midfield today.
Content with that result, we easily could have lost.
Midfield completely absent today. Jones took 65 minutes to get into the game (ended well) whilst Henderson and Fabinho let City run past them time and time again, we were fortunate the likes of Grealish and De Bruyne were awful as well.
Milner incredibly lucky to stay on the pitch. He was allowed to get away with murder against Palace and Zaha a couple of weeks ago, yet again here today.
Salah had Cancelo on toast. Rinsed him time and time again, it was easy. Great performance.
I’ll take a point, can’t be unhappy with that.
God knows what has happened to our midfield but it needs sorting or we won’t win shit. No intensity, no shape, second best to everything, we get carved open at will.
Matip outstanding.
Salah and Mane with utterly immense finishes, but our front line first half especially was woeful.
Probably 2nd best overall but we have the best player in the world on our team 
Brilliant game. If you can’t enjoy that you need a new sport. Pep’s meltdown was a highlight