Pep Guardiola, the coach of Manchester City, revealed the plan his team followed to neutralize the danger of the Egyptian star “Mohamed Salah”, during the big victory City achieved over Liverpool with a score of (3-0), in the summit of the English Premier League matches.
Guardiola praised the strong defensive performance of his team, and the tight organization that contributed to limiting the impact of one of the best strikers in the world.
The Spanish coach expressed his happiness with this victory, describing it as a “gift” from his players in his 1000th match as a coach. He said, in statements reported by the British network “Liverpool Echo”: “I thank the players for this gift, against the most important opponent we have faced during the ten years I have spent here without a doubt. Seeing players like Robertson and Mohamed Salah in all these confrontations is wonderful, and I hope that such battles will be repeated in the future.”
Liverpool suffered a painful loss that weakened their hopes of competing for the league title, after “Erling Haaland” missed a penalty kick before scoring the first goal, then “Nico Gonzalez” added the second goal with a shot that changed direction after hitting one of the defenders, while “Jeremy Doku” concluded the hat-trick, and the team of “Arne Slot” suffered its fifth defeat in the last 6 matches in the Premier League.
With Liverpool’s decline to eighth place in the standings, Manchester City narrowed the gap with leaders Arsenal to just 4 points.
Guardiola explained his team’s style of play, saying: “Our high pressing to regain the ball quickly was excellent, and I love to see my team pass the ball quickly and have the ability to run. We had an excellent first half offensively and defensively.”
He added: “In the second half, we talked a lot about individual duels, and we stressed that we must win them. During the first minutes, we lost some duels, which made the match more difficult for the midfielders, but the back line and Nico Gonzalez performed wonderfully.”
Guardiola pointed out that the team is starting to regain its well-known level, saying: “I felt that we were back in several aspects. I didn’t like the second half as much as I liked the first, but we have to continue to grow as a team. It was an important victory, we are now in second place.”
Speaking about facing “Mohamed Salah” specifically, Guardiola spoke in detail about the plan he put in place to stop the Egyptian star, praising his left-back “Nico O’Reilly” who was assigned the task of monitoring him.
He said: “Salah has been a nightmare for defenders for years, and he is a player at the top, and I emphasized to Nico that he should be fierce in dealing with him. It helped us a lot that there were three or four players around Mohamed when he received the ball.”
The Spanish coach added: “You will not find a better test as a left-back than facing Salah. Defensively, we were great, especially in the first half.”
Guardiola is currently working with his new assistant “Pep Lijnders”, who was formerly the second man in Jurgen Klopp’s coaching staff at Liverpool. The coach praised his work, saying: “I was very impressed with the performance of right-back Conor Bradley. Pep Lijnders said he can do everything. I know very well how he shone against Vinicius in the Real Madrid match.”
Guardiola concluded his speech by praising “Jeremy Doku”, saying: “Jeremy handled the match excellently, he was aggressive with and without the ball, and he gave an exceptional match.”
Match summary
In the ninth minute, the first signs of danger appeared from City’s side, when “Doku” penetrated inside the penalty area from the left side, trying to pass “Mamardashvili”, but he fell to the ground after colliding with the goalkeeper, demanding a penalty kick.
The referee did not award anything at first, but he received a signal from the “VAR” room to review the scene, and it became clear to him that there was an obstruction to “Doku” after his foot collided with the Liverpool goalkeeper’s knee, so he changed his decision and awarded a penalty kick.
“Haaland” stepped up to execute the kick, and shot it to the left of the Reds goalkeeper, who went to the same corner and managed to save the ball brilliantly, saving his team from an early goal.
City imposed their control over the course of the match, while Liverpool failed to create any real chance on “Donnarumma’s” goal in the first half hour.
“Doku” threatened again with another penetration from the left side, where he penetrated the penalty area, then turned and fired a powerful ball with his left foot, but “Mamaradashvili” saved it brilliantly and turned it into a corner kick.
“Haaland” was able to make up for the missed penalty kick by scoring the opening goal for City, with a precise header with which he received a cross from “Nunez”, and “Mamaradashvili” could only watch the ball settle in the net.
“Mohamed Salah” took a corner kick, and sent a precise cross inside the penalty area, which “Van Dijk” rose to and headed into the net, but the “VAR” referee intervened and canceled the goal, due to “Robertson’s” repeated intervention in the scene and distracting “Donnarumma” while he was trying to save the ball.
In the added time of the first half, “Gonzalez” strengthened the lead of the home team by scoring the second goal, with a creeping ground shot from outside the penalty area, which changed its course and entered the net.
Before the end of the first half, “Haaland” tried to score again with a header with which he received a cross from a corner kick, but his attempt failed, after the ball went over the crossbar, ending the half with Manchester City leading (2-0).
The Sky Blues did not change their style of play in the second half, and “Doku” continued his penetrations from the left side, and tried to shoot a ball towards the far right corner, but the Liverpool goalkeeper was on the lookout for him.
“Gonzalez” almost scored an own goal, after failing to deal with a cross, and the ball hit his foot and passed over the crossbar, turning into a corner kick.
“Doku” made the guests’ task of returning to the match more difficult, after he succeeded in scoring the third goal with a curved shot in the far right corner, and “Mamaradashvili” was unable to save it.
Despite the shock, Liverpool began to reach “Donnarumma’s” goal with dangerous opportunities, most notably a missile shot launched by “Szoboszlai” from outside the area, but the Italian goalkeeper saved it brilliantly.
“Salah” came close to narrowing the gap, after breaking away with the City goalkeeper, and tried to put the ball into the net as he came out, but it passed next to the post.
Liverpool intensified their pressure in the final minutes, but to no avail, so City escaped safely from conceding a late goal that would spoil their joy of a valuable victory.
