Izuchukwu Okosi
Manchester City dumped holders Liverpool out of the Carabao Cup Thursday evening with a 3-2 win at the Etihad stadium to reach the quarterfinals of the competition, reports Prime Business Africa.
Manchester City won just one of their seven League Cup (Carabao Cup) games against Liverpool (D3 L3), winning 3-2 in the third round in 1969-70.
However, the last of such encounter between Manchester City and Liverpool was in the 2016 final, with the ‘Cityzens’ winning 3-1 on penalties following a 1-1 draw.
Switzerland international of Nigerian descent Manuel Akanji created a big chance for Erling Haaland to score as the Norwegian bore down on goal. Haaland hit a low ball onto the path of Rob Palmer but the young winger failed to connect cleanly and his strike went wide off target.
Haaland then announced his return to his goal scoring form when in the 10th minute he received a great pass from Kelvin De Bruyne at the near post with an outstretched leg and steered the ball into the bottom-left corner.
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Liverpool were the side with the pressure on the opponents after the early goal and it paid off with an equaliser in the 20th minute as Portuguese youngster Carvalho pounced on James Milner’s cross to deliver a low shot to the bottom-left corner with an assured finish.
Kelleher denied Gundogan with an instinctive stop with his legs in the 36th minute which could have put City ahead again.
City retook the lead two minutes into the second half as Riysd Mahrez controlled brilliantly and curled a strike beyond the reach of Kelleher.
Brazilian-born Spanish midfielder Thiago lost possession of the ball and it fell kindly to Rodri who found the Algerian who scored a beauty.
Liverpool levelled in less than 60 seconds as Salah slotted the ball inside an empty net after an assist from Darwin Nunez three minutes into the second half.
Dutch defender Nathan Ake stoned for his first half miss from a 58th-minute header when he powered home a textbook header to put the ‘Cityzens’ ahead again.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
