Pep Guardiola’s animated, angry response to Manchester City shipping a goal to Feyenoord, with his side in control and comfortably ahead with only 16 minutes left to play, looked a tad overblown.
But Guardiola knew the fragility of his side and within a quarter of an hour the Dutch outfit were level, cutting through City at will, forcing and capitalising on defensive errors and earning a Champions League point that looked scarcely believable just a matter of minutes earlier.
City are rocking and Liverpool will feel there is a knockout punch to be landed on Sunday when the two sides meet in a titanic tussle. The Blues have an awful recent record at Anfield, winning just once since 2003 and that was in an empty stadium.
The home crowd will be buoyed by what they saw on Wednesday when Real Madrid were swatted aside 2-0, as Arne Slot’s men continued their 100 per cent start to the Champions League group stage. City are seven points off the pace in Europe and eight in the Premier League.
Liverpool will create a raucous and hostile atmosphere, from filling the streets to ‘greet’ the City coach to encouraging their side on once play gets under way. The Anfield atmosphere is often cited as a contributory factor to Liverpool successes, it certainly played a part in midweek.
But City can silence it. Strike first on Sunday and suddenly the tables turn. Slot’s side were beaten at home by Nottingham Forest earlier this term and the new Liverpool boss is a rookie when it comes to matches of this magnitude in the Premier League.
He and his side will know City could be a wounded animal and he will know that even in this disastrous run of defeats and a draw that felt like a defeat, Pep Guardiola’s side have scored first in three of those matches. They’ve lost the lead on each occasion but if they can get their noses in front on Merseyside, the complexion changes.
City know what it takes to get results in these massive matches, they rallied against Arsenal earlier this term and while the don’t often win at Anfield, they’ve only lost one of their last four top flight fixtures there and two of the last six. Liverpool haven’t come from behind to beat City in the league since 2008.
The Blues haven’t become a bad team overnight. An early goal on Sunday could remind everyone just how good a team they actually are.There’s plenty of deals to keep you warm from head to toe on match day.
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