Manchester City 3-2 Liverpool: Man City reach Carabao Cup quarter-finals

Manchester City cruised to victory in a Carabao Cup thriller at the Etihad Stadium as Nathan Ake’s first goal since April finally sealed the victory for hosts Liverpool.

However, just as he did for Erling Holland’s first and 24th goal of the season, Kevin de Bruyne produced a superb shot at the far post after 58 minutes, which found the head of Nate Phillips and produced a superb finish for Ake, who nodded home.

City deserved their victory and Pep Guardiola secured his fifth win in the competition, making him the most successful manager in his history.

The reigning Premier League champions travel to Southampton in the last eight of the week commencing 9 January 2023.

However, Liverpool had their chances as Fabio Carvalho equalized midway through the first half, and Darwin Nunez could have done much better with three strikes on the face of the goal and the far post.

Núñez found Salah on target when he outpaced Aymeric Laporte, but there was no third response from the visitors as their trophy defense ended.

Haaland came back with a hard shot

The fear for City’s rivals in the build-up to the World Cup is that a fully rested Haaland – whose country Norway failed to qualify for the World Cup – could do major damage when the season resumes.

He could have scored within 20 seconds, but after his pace took him away from Liverpool’s defence, the 22-year-old curled over Caoimhin Kelleher and the visitors’ goal.

But Haaland didn’t have to wait long to score. Surprisingly, when he was fit for the game, De Bruyne ignored the striker and City countered late in the opening period, replacing him with Ilkay Gundogan.

Guardiola replaced Holland with Phil Foden 17 minutes before full-time after chasing a ball to little reward after the interval.

At the start of the game, Guardiola said he thought the players in Qatar and City, who have more players than any other Premier League club, would be in better shape than those who have been training constantly.

There is merit in Guardiola’s view, but as City look to rebuild their Premier League campaign over the break, it is doubtful that three games a week will suit Haaland better than most of what he has had over the last month. win the world championship.

Liverpool need to find form quickly

Respective CEOs Ferran Soriano and Billy Hogan sent out a message to fans during the game, urging calm after the showdown between the Northwestern heavyweights over the past few years.

A pair of supporters ignored the message as they got into a heated argument, one standing in the corporate area to support Liverpool’s Carvalho’s first equaliser, ignoring the other.

Like Liverpool as a whole, Carvalho’s season never really took off before the World Cup and his half-time exit did not mean an immediate upturn in fortunes for the former Fulham man, who scored for the first time since August.

His replacement, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, has endured another injury-plagued campaign, but the midfielder played a key role in creating the space that Nunes exploited for Salah’s goal.

It will be interesting to see how Jurgen Klopp has put his team together and they need to find form really quickly, seven points behind fourth-placed Tottenham in the Premier League.