Without Haaland, their scorer, and without Bernardo Silva, their boatswain, Manchester City took extreme risks in an afternoon with championship value. He was visited by Liverpool, which even in its saddest moments inspires fear at the Etihad. The home team needed to win to stay in pursuit of Arsenal. He did it against the current, after Salah’s 0-1 comeback, thanks to Guardiola’s eccentric plan, topped off by a memorable performance by Julián Álvarez.
4
Ederson Moraes, Aké, Rúben Dias, Manuel Akanji, Rodrigo (Bernardo Silva, min. 82), Gündogan, De Bruyne, John Stones, Julián Álvarez, Mahrez and Grealish (Cole Palmer, min. 88)
1
Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ibrahima Konate, Virgil Van Dijk, A. Robertson (Konstantinos Tsimikas, min. 69), Henderson, Harvey Elliot (Oxlade-Chamberlain, min. 70), Fabinho, Diogo Jota (Roberto Firmino, min. 69), Gakpo (Milner, min. 82) y Salah (Darwin Núñez, min. 70)
goals 0-1 min. 16: Salah. 1-1 min. 27: Julian Alvarez. 2-1 min. 46: DeBruyne. 3-1 min. 53: Gundogan. 4-1 min. 74: Grealish.
Referee Simon Hooper
Yellow cards Salah (min. 19) and Rodrigo (min. 32)
The Argentine is not blessed with sensitivity in his feet, but his speed of thought transports him to an uncontrollable dimension for his opponents. City’s first three goals bore his trademark: dizzying support, quick touches, relentless dynamism, and accuracy. “I have no doubt that he will play a good role,” Guardiola said the day before, when asked about the support offered by Álvarez in the absence of Haaland, who has scored 42 goals in 37 games this season and has suffered a groin injury. “Julián is very aggressive, especially without the ball. He is impressive because of his courage and his personality because he is only 24 years old. And look at his goals per minute ratio!”
Julián Álvarez scores a goal every 130 minutes approximately, if City’s first against Liverpool is counted. A very important goal because it served to equalize Salah’s goal in the 17th minute. At the height of the afternoon, against an opponent who grew with each counterattack, City responded with courage unbecoming of a team that has won four Premiers in the last five seasons.
The crisis of the first minutes was inevitable. In the absence of full-backs, injured or lost on the market, Guardiola reorganized the 4-3-3 with four central defenders. He made Akanji and Aké cover the wings, put Días in the axis, and took Stones off as a pseudo-midfielder. The Spanish coach had no choice, who had to compensate for the replacement of Bernardo Silva, depleted by the flu. Until Stones and Rodri began to understand each other, which was exciting, City lived dangerously exposed to the blows of Salah and Jota, inventors of the 0-1. After almost half an hour of laborious defensive adjustments that involved Grealish and Álvarez in heroic coverage, City hit the target. De Bruyne came down to launch Mahrez down the flank, and the flower of imbalance arose from the combination of the Frenchman with Gundogan. Gundogan’s pass to Grealish was symptomatic of two things: Gundogan’s clairvoyance and the decomposition of the right flank of the Liverpool defense, where Konaté and Alexander-Arnold alternate indolence and nonsense. Released Grealish to pass, Álvarez scored the equalizer and laid the foundations for the comeback.
“I thank the scouts”
The most routine thing the Argentine forward did against Liverpool was the goal. At 24 years old, he has just renewed his contract with City until 2028. Guardiola has already verified that his talent is as deep as it is invisible to the fans of the bar. Because Julián Álvarez, as the coach said, shines without the ball. The unchecking of his support, those things he does while the others have the ball, helped Stones and Rodri to get out of the pressure in their field, just as they dislodged Van Dijk in the Liverpool field. The recital of movements allowed him to enable Mahrez with a change of front that led to De Bruyne’s 2-1, and helped Stones to maneuver as a midfielder in the action that led to Gundogan’s 3-1.
“Julián was involved in all the goals and played with great intelligence,” Guardiola said after the game. “For a reason he is the starting striker of the world champion. I have to thank the City scouts for discovering him.”
City paid 20 million euros to River Plate for Julián Álvarez last summer, around the same time that Liverpool paid 100 million euros for Darwin Núñez. The fate of the two teams was sealed in the market. Today, according to the appraisers of the most qualified consultants at the service of the Premier, the value of both footballers is approximately the inverse: the obvious, the powerful, the athletic Núñez, who was a substitute in Manchester, is worth 20 million euros. His counterpart, the short Álvarez, is worth 80 million more.
Gabriel Jesús, superb in the 4-1 of Arsenal
Arsenal played in the next turn. At 4:00 p.m. at the Emirates, the leader of the Premier received Marc Roca’s Leeds. That was the distribution of forces: Odegaard, Martinelli, Trossard and Gabriel Jesús against Marc Roca, an unequal battle that the Spanish midfielder fought inch by inch until a penalty broke the dam. It was provoked by Gabriel Jesús, a soccer wonder, a leader by drive, by vocation to grow, by generosity and humility. the return of nine It has served Arsenal to sustain itself in excellence when the team showed signs of losing energy. In tune with Martinelli, Trossard and Odegaard, three top-class footballers, Gabriel Jesús ended up breaking Leeds. The 2-0, after a combination with Trossard and a furious start towards the small area, culminated a superb performance. It is not “chaos”, in the words of Arteta, what Gabriel Jesús generates with his maneuvers without the ball. It is pure harmony of the combination in small spaces. The most difficult order to reach in football. The final 4-1 leaves things as they were: very complicated for Manchester City.
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