Abu Dhabi, April 9 / WAM/ Manchester City will be on a date with a real summit meeting and a largely fateful confrontation once morest Liverpool tomorrow in the 32nd stage of the English Premier League, following several difficult confrontations between the two teams in the competition in recent years.
And before the last seven matches for each of the two teams in the competition this season, the conflict between them ignites at the top of the championship table, which Manchester City currently occupies, with only one point ahead of Liverpool, which makes it one of the most difficult confrontations ever, despite the two sides’ assurances that its outcome is not necessarily decisive in the struggle for the title. The English Premier League this season, with each remaining 21 points available in the 7 weeks of the competition.
But winning this match will certainly bring its owner a big step on the way to the title podium, especially if it is for Manchester City, which awaits less difficult matches than what awaits Liverpool in the remaining weeks of the competition this season.
90 minutes tomorrow at the “Al Ittihad” stadium in Manchester, it may be the real compass to determine the identity of the team closest to the podium in the “full number” league this season, which witnessed the return of competitions to normal significantly following the Corona pandemic affected them in the past two seasons, whether at the level of regular matches or Mass attendance.
Since Liverpool’s big win over Manchester City 3-0 in the first leg and 1-2 in the Champions League quarter-finals in the 2017/2018 season, Manchester City’s record has improved a lot once morest Liverpool, where the team won three times, tied in three games and lost one game in Seven matches brought them together in the league, and they also beat them on penalties in the Charity Shield match (English Super Cup) at the beginning of the 2019/2020 season.
Manchester City coach Josep Guardiola said that his team and Liverpool had raised the competition for the English Premier League title by raising the general level so that obtaining the title required gaining more than 90 points.
During their match in the first leg of the current season, Manchester managed to snatch a valuable draw with Liverpool 2/2 following one of the strongest matches of the competition this season.
But the confrontations of the past and the statistics will not have a great place on the green rectangle in tomorrow’s match, as these confrontations only recognize the ability of each team to decide inside the rectangle, as it is more like cup matches.
Each party is aware of the strengths of the opposing party, as each of them has become an open book for the other coach, given that the confrontation between them comes in the last quarter of the season.. Therefore, the chances of either of them to win will depend on their ability to exploit their weapons on the one hand and their success in neutralizing the opponent’s weapons on the one hand. .
Guardiola relies on a set of important weapons before this confrontation, foremost of which is the team’s multiple offensive options, although one of his most prominent problems is the lack of an explicit spearhead that is sufficiently distinctive to translate the many opportunities into goals.
Among the team’s most prominent offensive options, the Brazilian Gabriel Jesus, the Algerian Riyad Mahrez and the two Englishmen, Raheem Sterling and Jack Grealish, are assisted by Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden and others from the midfield.
Foden and Sterling may be Guardiola’s most important success cards in this confrontation, as the first grabbed the spotlight in the last two confrontations once morest Liverpool, and the other played a prominent role in the last two victories once morest Liverpool, where he scored a goal in each of them. What’s more, Foden scored in the last three He played matches with City once morest Liverpool, which are three of the last four matches between the two teams in the league, while he missed the other match, which ended in a 1-1 draw in November 2020.
And if Manchester City will have more support from the fans in the stands at its stadium tomorrow, it also needs stronger support from its defense in the face of the Liverpool attack led by Egyptian star Mohamed Salah and Senegalese Sadio Mane, knowing that Manchester City’s defense is still the best in the championship this season, as it shook its net. Only 18 times in 30 games, compared to 20 goals once morest Liverpool in the same number of matches.
It should be noted that since Manchester City’s 2-1 victory over Liverpool in January 2019, a victory that contributed to Manchester City’s crowning the title in that season, the two teams played two matches at the same stadium “Al Ittihad”, but in the absence of fans, in July 2020 and November of the year The same, Manchester City won the first 4-0, and the two teams tied 1-1, while tomorrow’s match will witness the return of the fans to the “Al-Ittihad” stands to support Manchester City’s chances of winning the match and approaching the title.
In order to maintain the great confidence of the fans and the enthusiastic encouragement throughout the match, Manchester City players will have to take advantage of opportunities and not waste them, in turn, taking advantage of the mistakes that sometimes occur from the Brazilian goalkeeper Alison Becker, the Liverpool goalkeeper, in such difficult matches.
As for Liverpool’s weapons, which Manchester City must confront and address, they come in the forefront of Mohamed Salah, especially since he scored and assisted five of his team’s last seven goals once morest City, including the wonderful and historical goal of him in their match together last October, which means that Manchester City will be required Not to give Salah any gifts tomorrow.
It is worth noting that the first leg match between the two teams this season also gave Manchester City an important lesson that must be remembered well before tomorrow’s match, which is not to wait for gifts from the referees, especially since the team suffered from the decisions of the referees in the first leg, where James Milner, the Liverpool player, committed many mistakes that were She deserved a warning, but the referee overlooked her as well as condoning Sterling the penalty he deserved.
