After their victory against Real Madrid, Liverpool welcomed Manchester City to Anfield for the big game. It was Arne Slot’s first game against City, and the match against Pep Guardiola attracted a lot of attention.
Although a close game was expected, Liverpool dominated the away team from the start of the match, with Dutch international Cody Gakpo scoring the opener in the 12th minute, and the visitors continued to close in on the visitors’ goal.
More goals could have been scored, but the first half ended with a one-goal margin.
In the second half, Liverpool reduced the intensity of their pressing but controlled the game, not allowing them to do the job in front of goal. Instead, they created a number of chances on the counter and Mohamed Salah ensured a penalty in the 78th minute to give the home team a comfortable win.
Liverpool’s big game continued, but Virgil van Dijk reflected on the match and said it was a brilliant game, but admitted he could have scored more than two goals. He had three headed chances himself, but failed to send them flying into the box.
“I think City is a fantastic team. Four-time champions in a row. They have the quality to punish any team. But I think we were solid defensively and had great chances. We could have scored more.”
“Good game. We won. And we move on.”
“We focus on the next game. That’s the only thing we can do. There’s no point at this stage of the season to get ahead of ourselves. Of course everybody wants to be in a position where they are 11 points ahead of their opponents.”
“But there’s so many twists and turns. We have injuries to our team unfortunately and we have to deal with that.”
New injuries in the previous games – Ibrahima Konate and Connor Bradley – meant that the squad tended to be down towards the end of a busy year.
Nevertheless, Joe Gomez, who started against City, and Jarell Quansah, who came on midway through the game, played well and showed the strength of the team.
Liverpool need to continue their good run of form and continue their march towards winning the Premier League, while avoiding any further injuries.