THaaland was the goal monster and Doc was the star, but it was Nico Gonzalez who laid the foundation of the party at the Etihad. Josep Guardiola celebrated his 1,000th match as manager against a Liverpool team that was slowly collapsing from within. Konate was not up to the challenge and was overwhelmed by the quality of Jeremy Doku.
The match started with Doc fully unleashed and Konate rising from the opposite side of the bed. The French centre-back hasn’t had the best season in the world and, although he gifted the ball to Manchester City’s winger, he didn’t have his best game as the winger ran into the box to face Mamadashvili and the referee said he had committed a penalty. Doc dribbled away from the Georgian, but at the last moment he touched the goalkeeper’s knee, causing the Belgian to lose his balance and fall to the ground after attempting a shot. The former Valencia man was clear. He could stop him, so he did.
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If Konate had already had a poor start, things couldn’t suddenly get better, and on the half-hour mark we saw a true goal monster with Erling and last name Haaland eat away at him, heading the ball past the far post and slamming it into the back of the net. This meant that Liverpool needed to respond as soon as possible, and as a matter of fact, they tried without much success. From a corner, Van Dijk headed wide of Donnarumma’s goal, but Robertson “snatched” the vision from Donnarumma and the linesman raised his flag to signal offside on the Scottish player’s position.
With no response from Liverpool, City continued with the game, and Nico was determined to prove that he was not only Rodri’s perfect successor, but more than that. From a corner kick, with everything against him, the Spaniard took a shot, but his shot ended up hitting a Liverpool player, making matters difficult for Mamadashvili, who was unable to do anything.
Doc’s exhibition
Liverpool wanted to change the pace of the game and in fact tried to threaten Pep’s side in the first few minutes, but what they did was to ring the alarm bells at the Etihad. That’s why Doc was so clear about what he had to do. Gakpo silenced the buzz after he had a chance with a deafening shot into the top corner of the ‘lead’ goal.
Jeremy Doku was cheered by thousands of fans at the Etihad for his 100th game against City, but what they didn’t know was that after his departure, Liverpool would undergo an improvement they hadn’t seen during the game. However, neither Gakpo nor Salah could beat the former PSG player, with Salah managing to keep Pep’s party intact.
