Erling Haaland struck an injury-time penalty to seal a 2-1 comeback for Manchester City at Anfield, preserving their Premier League challenge. City had fallen behind but responded when Haaland set up Bernardo Silva for the equaliser, then converted a spot-kick after Alisson brought down Matheus Nunes in the box.<\/p>\n
The decisive moments were followed by further late drama: Rayan Cherki had a goal disallowed and Szoboszlai received a red card. Haaland\u2019s winner was only his second goal in his last eight Premier League appearances, both from the spot, but it proved decisive.<\/p>\n
Gianluigi Donnarumma produced a crucial late save to deny Alexis Mac Allister, the effort taking a deflection and dipping under the bar before Donnarumma kept it out. That stop underlined the goalkeeper\u2019s importance in the closing stages.<\/p>\n
There were contrasting performances among the forwards. Haaland was subdued for large periods, out-muscled by Virgil van Dijk and guilty of squandering chances, yet he delivered when it mattered most. Omar Marmoush struggled to make an impact, failed to develop a relationship with Haaland and was replaced early in the second half by Rayan Cherki. The report notes concern about where Marmoush fits in, particularly with Antoine Semenyo thriving since his move from Bournemouth.<\/p>\n
Player ratings reflected the game\u2019s key contributors. Bernardo Silva was City\u2019s standout at the heart of their best moments. Matheus Nunes earned praise for winning the penalty and offering an attacking outlet. Defensively, Marc Gu\u00e9hi and Abdukodir Khusanov were generally solid, with Khusanov later substituted for a potential concussion concern and R\u00faben Dias influential after coming on.<\/p>\n
The result leaves City six points behind league leaders Arsenal with 13 games remaining, keeping their title hopes alive. Match statistics showed City with 54 percent possession, 17 total shots, seven on target and an xG of 2.91 compared with Liverpool\u2019s 1.21. The victory offered a reminder of Haaland\u2019s value and of how fine margins can decide a title race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Haaland’s injury-time penalty secured a 2-1 win at Anfield, keeping City’s title hopes alive. still.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6644,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1056,172],"tags":[355,801,988],"class_list":["post-6645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-city","category-epl","tag-alisson-becker","tag-antoine-semenyo","tag-bernardo-silva"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}