Lovren’s Mistakes Gave Man City A Win Over Liverpool, 2-1

In the biggest sporting event of the day, Machester City beat Liverpool at their Etihad Stadium and kept the Premiership title race interesting. The Sky-Blues won 2-1, and got down to four points behind the big rival from Anfield.

“We knew that if we won we would be in contention to fight for the Premier League, if we lose it is over.” Pep Guardiola said after the match, admitting that his team wouldn’t stand a chance in the rest of the season if they lost tonight.

The game was marked with Dejan Lovren’s catastrophic mistakes, which in the end cost Liverpool at least one point. That one point from this event, might be the crucial one in the following months, which would definitely make the Croatian defender one of the less favorable faces among the Reds fans.

His bad reactions allowed for City’s strikers to score, and there were several more, but luckily for the guests, the offensive part of Citizen’s team didn’t have enough composure in those moments to execute it properly.

The games started without too much excitement, and that was up until Liverpool’s superb counter-attack in the 18th minute. Salah connected with Sane whose shot cannoned back of the post. John Stones tried to clear the danger, but instead, he hit his goalkeeper, and the ball went straight towards the goal. The English national team member managed to get to it before it passed the goal line with its whole body, denying Liverpool a chance to take the lead.

City scored in the 41st minute after Aguero used a sloppy reaction of Lovren in the box, firing a rocket from the right side beside Alisson’s head.

WHAT A FINISH 🚀

Sergio Agüero was too quick for Dejan Lovren and fired Manchester City ahead! pic.twitter.com/eqhOP16eG7

— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) January 3, 2019

Liverpool was more aggressive after the start of the second half, but the home team restrained the Reds controlling the ball and not allowing their pacey attack to have any space up front.

Firmino missed a chance when his shot towards the empty net somehow ended striking Kompany. Jurgen Klopp was furious at the referee for not showing the Belgian the red card in the first half after he made a harsh tackle on Mohamed Salah, who was charging towards City’s goal.

“I really like Vincent Kompany but how on Earth is that not a red card? He is last man, and he goes in. If he hits Mo more, he is out for the season. It is not easy for the ref, and he may not see it how I see it.” Klopp stated in a post-game interview.

In the 64th minute, the Brazilian striker scored anyway, after using the bad reaction of City’s goalkeeper Ederson. One high long pass from Trent-Arnold at the far post was diverted by Robertson, who assisted Firmino, setting up an easy finish for his teammate.

But only nine minutes later, Lovren makes another mistake. This time he fails to make an offside trap, and then doesn’t see Raheem Sterling who has the ball and makes an assist to Leroy Sane, which turns out to be a fatal thing for the visiting team.

https://twitter.com/jonny_shoshani/status/1080939978421559297

The Croatian centre-back once more shocked Liverpool’s fans when he turned the ball right into Steerling’s feet, who later passed it to Aguero, but the Argentinian failed to use the one-on-one situation with Alisson.

Liverpool threatened once more, two minutes after Aguero’s opportunity, but Mohamed Salah’s shot was diverted by Ederson, who pushed the ball with his fingertips into the corner. After that set piece, Van Dijk was just a couple of inches short of reaching the ball, after City’s goalkeeper made a bad judgment, and left his goal empty. Luckily for the hosts, it turned out to be good for them.

After this contest, Liverpool still holds the top spot with 54 points, while City sits behind them with 50.