Liverpool and Manchester City tied in the main match of the 28th round

The main match of the 28th round of the English Championship raised the level of intrigue in the “golden race” to the limit. Weakened by injuries to its leading players, Liverpool either achieved a draw at home – 1:1 – in the match with Manchester City, which they led after the first half, or missed the victory, since the advantage of the Liverpool team at the end of the match was huge. After it, Arsenal turned out to be the leader of the tournament. Liverpool are level with them, while Manchester City are just a point behind.

In online broadcasts of the most important matches, the BBC always gives the opportunity to speak not only to experts, but also to ordinary fans without a serious football background. That evening the posts from Liverpool fans were full of horror. They compared the starting lineup of their team, which was covered by a real avalanche of injuries at the end of the winter, with the one that played a 1:1 draw with Manchester City in the first round in November, and found only four matches. They discussed how 21-year-old Jarell Quanso, forced to close the center of defense next to Virgil van Dijk due to losses, could cope against Erling Haaland, and agreed: if he did, it would be some kind of miracle. And the opening ten minutes were for them a sad confirmation of the fact that it would be incredibly difficult for Liverpool in this meeting. Well, yes, Haaland, oddly enough, seems to be “silent” for now, but look what Kevin De Bruyne is like! So far they can’t cope with him at all – he gives it up, rushes forward, cutting through the Liverpool rear, like a knife, jelly trembling on a saucer. And thanks to goalkeeper Quivin Kelleher for coping with the Belgian’s tight shot.

But some time passed – and it turned out that the panic was still a little premature. Liverpool definitely didn’t look like a hopeless team. Moreover, at some point he seized the initiative. Of course, the point is not that he began to possess the ball much more often – he did not even try to chase possession, but that he played such an ideal outsider football, when the opponent is not allowed to relax for a second, with a constant focus on interception and bite after interception. Once the Liverpudlians even scored, albeit from an offside position, but it seemed to give the guests quite a scare.

But even those lessons were learned from troubles well and by the middle of the first half they were already making fewer falsehoods. And then we earned a corner.

Goals after corners are usually a routine thing, based on some kind of patterns. But there was a minimum of cliche in this Manchester City goal. The Liverpool team, it seems, were not just waiting, but were convinced that De Bruyne, as usual, would throw a strong cross somewhere in the center of the penalty area—to Haaland. And he suddenly launched the ball low towards the near post. And forward Darwin Nunez, who had the job of guarding defender John Stones, who had come to the set-piece for the opposing goal, did not seem to think at all that his tall opponent would rush forward, as if reading the thoughts of his playmaker, to that near corner to complete the pass.

Manchester City took the lead. And Liverpool missed a great chance to restore balance when Harvey Elliott gently crossed for Dominik Szoboszlai, who was left alone near the penalty spot. It was all too clear from Szoboszlai’s face after an inaccurate headbutt how desperately he was cursing his bad luck in this episode.

Manchester City also snapped back. Kevin De Bruyne sent Erling Haaland into the middle of the field into a sprint, in which Virgil van Dijk stood in the way of the Norwegian. Van Dijk did not prevent Haaland from shooting, but he did prevent him from shooting from a comfortable position. And before the break, Kyle Walker was not quite accurate enough when shooting at the far post: De Bruyne, his target, did not get to the ball.

Those Liverpool fans who had already taken what happened to him in the first half as a death sentence could not believe their eyes when they saw what a luxurious gift Manchester City gave them immediately after the rest. Nathan Ake played a sloppy back pass and Ederson, correcting his mistake, brought down Darwin Nunez. The Manchester goalkeeper was injured but remained in goal to try to save a penalty from Alexis McAllister. He did not reflect and, limping, gave up his place to backup Stefan Ortega.

And after this luck, the game took such a sharp stylistic turn that it could make your head spin. With Mohamed Salah on the field, Liverpool began to tear apart the Manchester City defense as brutally as if they had secretly dressed some Luton players in blue jerseys. And for example, Luis Diaz found himself in front of Ortega twice in a row. In the first case, after an amazing pass from Salah, he made a mistake himself, throwing over both the goalkeeper and the crossbar. In the second, Kyle Walker showed miracles of heroism, managing to hit the ball from behind and knocking off Diaz’s aim.

The madness continued until the final whistle. Manchester City, having somehow calmed down a little after the radical move of coach Pep Guardiola, who sat their sour leader De Bruyne on the bench, almost scored a completely crazy goal when the ball kicked by Kelleher hit Phil Foden, and from him hit the crossbar. Liverpool still got chance after chance – and still squandered chances and almost ran into trouble. After dribbling, Jeremy Doku carefully placed the ball into the far corner, but it hit the post.

In general, out of madness a draw was born, which played into the hands of the third participant in the “golden race”, Arsenal. Ten rounds before the finish, he found himself at the top line of the table, ahead of Liverpool, which was on a par with him in terms of points, in terms of additional indicators. And Manchester City is breathing down the duo’s back, trailing by a point.

Alexey Dospehov