ETIHAD STADIUM — The Romans had a way with guards of honour. As the legions marched through the streets of the imperial capital, strewn with women and wine, a slave would be assigned to stand behind their general whispering: “Remember, Caesar, you are mortal.”
This was Jurgen Klopp’s Roman triumph. Liverpool had their guard of honour; they were acclaimed by Pep Guardiola as one of the Premier League’s great champions. Then for 20 first-half minutes they were made to feel entirely mortal. A sign that the next Premier League season might be more fiercely contested.
They were 20 minutes in which Phil Foden unfurled the promise which might come to full blossom in next summer’s delayed European Championship.
Liverpool walk out as Premier League champions for the first time – greeted by rivals Man City.#MCFC #LFC pic.twitter.com/g0CaYclk7O
— i sport (@iPaperSport) July 2, 2020
One of the questions Guardiola is most persistently asked is how deeply he believes in Foden.
Why, if his talent is as glittering as the Manchester City manager insists, the 20-year-old from Stockport does not start more games? To the cynical Foden is employed by the club as a symbol that the vast sums lavished on Manchester City’s academy have an end product.
This strange summer of football played in empty stadiums have provided Guardiola’s answer. Foden began it by scoring in the 3-0 win over Arsenal and two more in the 5-0 demolition of Burnley. This was even more emphatic. He made one goal, scored another and only a clearance off the line from Virgil van Dijk denied him a second.
When the Liverpool team bus tried to drive through the gates of the Etihad Stadium, a lone Manchester City fan stood in front of it. Perhaps it was tempting to imagine this was the stiffest resistance the new champions might face. When Mo Salah had one shot punched away by Ederson and saw another strike the foot of the post, the thought might have lingered.
On the side of the Liverpool bus was the slogan: “We are Liverpool, This Means More.” This was true when it came to seizing the first league title in three decades but the night would have meant more to Manchester City who would consider themselves the once and future champions.
Back in November, when life and football was utterly different, the managers of Manchester City and Liverpool brought the Premier League trophy and the European Cup to a dinner hosted by the Football Writers’ Association. In his speech Guardiola suggested that come the end of the season they might like to swap trophies.
Liverpool would have shocked Guardiola by the speed and ruthlessness with which they seized the title but the applause was genuine enough and although there would be some on Merseyside who would have relished the sight of Raheem Sterling in the guard of honour applauding the new champions, Manchester City’s number seven would enjoy the rest of the evening rather more.
By the interval, Manchester City were three up, Sterling had played a part in two of them and seriously discomforted Joe Gomez, who did not reappear for the second half.
There is history between Sterling and Gomez. A couple of weeks before Guardiola made his speech at Manchester’s Radisson Edwardian hotel, the day after Liverpool had beaten City 3-1 at Anfield, Gomez and Sterling had clashed in the canteen at the England headquarters at St George’s Park. Sterling was dropped for the game against Montenegro.
Midway through the first half, they clashed again. Gomez had one hand around Sterling’s shoulders, another around his waist and briefly brushed against his groin. The result was a penalty, expertly converted by Kevin de Bruyne, which drew the kind of applause you might expect for a boundary struck at a sparsely attended County Championship match.
Ten minutes later, the television replays picked out the concentration carved into Foden’s face as he delivered a pass that set up Sterling, who seemed to take fractionally too long over his shot but drove it through Gomez’s legs and into the net.
The third was even better, a one-two with De Bruyne which finished with Foden one-on-one with Alisson Becker. These are not foregone conclusions with Liverpool’s goalkeeper but Foden’s shot was stunning.
The Etihad Stadium would not count as Jurgen Klopp’s favourite. He once lost 5-0 here and when after receiving a lovely, cushioned volleyed pass from Ilkay Gundogan, De Bruyne cut it back for Sterling, whose shot was deflected into his own net by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, a repetition beckoned. Only Foden’s handball in the build-up to Riyad Mahrez’s shot that beat Alisson at the near post prevented a repetition.
For Liverpool the defeat was a footnote in a glorious season but it would be wrong to say it is a defeat without consequences. When the Premier League finally breaks up for the summer, one manager will brush it aside but the other might linger over it, plot and plan.
More on Liverpool
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- ‘The Kop went wild!’: Remembering when Liverpool last won the title
- Barnes exclusive: ‘Could I have played in this Liverpool team? Great players fit into any era’
- How Liverpool went from Europe’s best to waiting 30 years for another title
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2NMIoaa
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