Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola’s final Premier League battle ended with Liverpool and Manchester City sharing the points.
The reigning champions dominated the nervous reds in the first-half and took the lead after Kevin De Bruyne found John Stones at the near post with a genius corner, allowing the England international to bundle home from close range. However, City handed Liverpool when Nathan Ake’s under-hit pass resulted in Ederson recklessly taking out Darwin Nunez in the penalty area. Alexis Mac Allister stood up and slotted a perfect penalty past the Brazilian to level the contest.
The Reds created endless chances from that point onwards with the best of which falling to Luis Diaz, who missed the target when one-on-one on two occasions. City almost stole the points against the run of play when substitute Jeremy Doku hit the post just as the match trickled into added time.
Yet, neither side were clinical enough in front of goal and the spoils were shared between two of the Premier League title favourites – Daily Star Sport considers four decisions Jurgen Klopp got right.
It proved to be a masterstroke, as it prevented Foden from cutting onto his favoured left foot, just as he did in City’s 3-1 victory over Manchester United. While Foden did get round his ex-England colleague on occasions, he was mostly forced onto his weaker right foot.
The youngster from Stockport has been one of the best Premier League players this season, but Klopp’s inspired decision nullified the tricky winger.
You know you are doing a great job as Liverpool’s right back when some people have floated the idea of deploying Trent Alexander-Arnold at central midfield to keep you there. Bradley has been one of Liverpool’s players of the season, but this was his toughest task.
Not only did Bernardo Silva and Julian Alvarez rarely get the better of him, Bradley pinned both players back with his own marauding runs into the City half. Klopp gave the youngster one of his famous hugs when he brought him off for Mohamed Salah in the 60th minute.
Unleashing Mohamed Salah
Like the final boss in every classic video game, everyone was waiting for Salah to enter the game. City are likely terrified of the Egyptian, as he has scored 11 goals in 19 appearances against them.
Klopp turned to the former Chelsea forward when Anfield was at its loudest – ten minutes after Mac Allister equalised from the penalty spot. Salah immediately played Diaz through on goal with an inch perfect pass that zipped through the City lines.
City’s defence and midfield seemingly back-peddled at his introduction. While this is likely coincidental, Guardiola also hauled off De Bruyne and introduced the more defensive and steady Mateo Kovacic.
Playing into the emotion
Questions leading into the game were focussed on Klopp’s final Premier League meeting against Pep Guardiola. The two have had one of the best Premier League managerial rivalries in recent memories.
However, Klopp tried to evade those questions by dragging each interview back onto the players. Yet, there was a sense that Klopp was trying to use the emotion to turn up the volume at Anfield.
He has always interacted with the crowd, but Klopp was punching the air, waving his arms up at the fans and applauding his players and fans more often than normal. It was like he was trying to absorb every single bit of energy and emotion from the stands. With City arguably entering the game as the heavy favourites due to Liverpool’s injuries, the Anfield noise levelled the field significantly.
