The Road To Kiev: Fixture By Fixture Analysis, Liverpool vs Manchester City
Loading ...After analyzing three of the fixtures for this season’s UCL Quarter Finals in the last six part of this series, we will today look to analyze what is arguably the most intriguing quarter final clash.
The tie between the two premier league giants, Liverpool and Manchester City promises lots of goals, charismatic football, attacking master class and tactical genius. It will be interesting to see how two of the most attacking minded coaches in world football will face off in this tie. Guardiola’s Man City have been the most potent team in the premier league this season with 88 goals while Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool are in close second in terms of goals with a tally of 75 goals.
Being in the same league, they have met twice this season with Man City winning 5-0 at the Etihad and Liverpool winning 4-3 at Anfield in the only match Man City have lost in the Premier League this season.
Liverpools attacking trio of Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino will be looking to continue their amazing partnership by delivering the goods against a Man City defence that is arguably one of the strongest in the league this season by banking on Salah’s amazing goal scoring form which has seen him score 37 goals this season while Man City’s attacking quartet of Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Jesus, Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane will be looking to add to their already impressive goal haul this season by exploiting the sometimes fragile defence of liverpool with the help of the midfield wizardry of Kevin De Bruyne who is a major contender for the premier league player of the season.
One major battle to watch out for will be the battle of tactics between Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp. Guardiola is a manager who believes that hoarding the ball from the opponents by retaining possession sucks out the opponent’s energy and makes them vulnerable defensively while Klopp believe in the high press philosophy where his team is built up to press the opponent intensively when not in possession and play quick and incisive passing when in possession. It only remains to be seen if they will tweak their philosophies a bit to absorb the pressure they will throw at each other or rely on their ideologies with the hope of waiting for the opponent to make costly mistakes.
So what’s your take? Who do you think will win this one?
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