Liverpool lost their first proper match in a modern-day rivalry seven years ago, taking the premier league to new heights.
Jurgen klopp’s merseyside side were still far from being crowned champions in his first full season.
They had reached the league cup and europa league finals the year before, they had snagged sadio mane, georginio wijnaldum, and joel matip in the transfer market, and they had a recently completed anfield main stand to cheer the team on, though they were still a work in progress. Their squad, valued at half a billion pounds by transfermarkt, was a lot closer to the finished product though it had been freshly handed over to pep guardiola at the start of the campaign, following klopp to these shores from germany. the three-year managerial duo had competed in the bundesliga, klopp with dortmund and guardiola with bayern munich.
The former got the better, winning back-to-back titles, but now was their chance to conquer english football. their first meeting was scheduled for december 31, 2016, under the anfield lights, to close out the calendar year. Simon mignolet, nathaniel clyne, dejan lovren, ragnar klavan, james milner, georginio wijnaldum, jordan henderson, emre can, sadio mane, roberto firmino, and adam lallana were all in the reds starting lineup.
Simon mignolet, nathaniel clyne, dejan lovren, ragnar klavan, james milner, georginio wijnaldum, jordan henderson, emre can, sadio mane, roberto firmino, and adam lallana were all in the reds starting lineup.
Despite the fact that the visitors treated their star-studded cast like this: claudio bravo, pablo zabaleta, john stones, nicolas otamendi, aleksandar kolarov, yaya toure, fernandinho, kevin de bruyne, david silva, and sergio aguero.
It should be summarized as much as possible, but it should be regarded as a preview of the battles to come. Wijnaldum’s eighth-minute header was the difference in a 1-0 home victory, which, according to google’s vast database, had no shots on target between either team. There is no physical evidence to back up guardiola’s dissatisfaction with liverpool as the dutchman’s thunderous shot on the end of lallana’s inch-perfect shot unequivocally nestled in the bottom corner of bravo’s goal without the help of the post or a deflection.
The daily mail’s story the day before stated: “away from the microphones, though, the mask fell.” Guardiola’s state of mind was revealed to the world outside city’s dressing room an hour after the game, when he was in a deep chat with txiki begiristain, city’s director of football, outside the dressing room. “he paced back and forth and loosened his grip.” He grinned and pressed his fist into his hand. As he tried to figure out why city was so meek, his arms were outstretched and his eyes blazed.
Begiristain could only listen as guardiola leaned his hand over his head, exasperation streaming out of him. Yaya toure, a reds fan since his move to the etihad stadium six years ago, admitted to his coach’s displeasure during the half-time break. “when you are losing and liverpool are the better team, and if you are losing like that, it’s not going to be happy at halftime,” the ivorian said. “it was disappointing, and we all felt it.” He’s going to be enraged, of course. He is a boss who can be enraged. we have to constantly improve and respond to situations. We knew liverpool would be waiting when we lost the ball, and they did so to score. He was angry for everything that was going on, “he said.
These moments could have been lost among other famous moments that vexed the Spaniard at Anfield. Michael Oliver would have been better off waving and shouting ‘twice’ to the smiling crowd as he motioned for two separate penalties before shaking the referee’s hand and saying ‘thank you very much’ to full time in November 2019. It will be. But they can’t take credit for kick-starting Guardiola’s bid to lift City to the top of the English league over direct rivals Liverpool in two runs.Because of this, today’s match seven years ago had no bearing on the direction of the year-end Premier League Cup.
Chelsea won easily under Antonio Conte, finishing the season with 93 points, while City finished 3rd and 4th in the Champions League with 78 points and Liverpool with 76 points. But it was the last time a club other than the Reds or City lifted the English title. It was an era when the title race was so dominant that it only came close to being broken once every six years.
