And footage has emerged of how Guardiola actually reacted after he stepped off the bus at Anfield. One of them blinked.
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Was it his tactical decision to drop winger Raheem Sterling and play an extra central midfielder in Ilkay Gundogan, a move that completely backfired? Last night’s performance in the demolition of the soon to be Premier League champions was undoubtedly the defining moment of his Liverpool career so far.
Liverpool became the first team for 18 months to prevent Pep Guardiola’s side registering a shot on target and the Reds keeper believes the players have become a more solid unit in recent weeks.
In 2013-14, Guardiola’s Bayern suffered a 5-0 aggregate defeat against Real Madrid in the semifinals after being outfoxed by Carlo Ancelotti and Cristiano Ronaldo. We did well. We could not create chances because they defended deep but we were there for the last pass.
The visitors were caught out on the counter-attack on 12 minutes when Salah sprang Roberto Firmino in behind the City defence and, after his initial effort was parried by Ederson, Firmino teed up Salah to smash home his 38th goal of the season. Liverpool are more unsafe than ever before (now 31)9.
Captain Vincent Kompany said it “had no effect on us” and that it was something they have experienced before, while midfielder Kevin de Bruyne said there was “nothing wrong with it”.
It was all about Oxlade-Chamberlain’s effort, and Liverpool supporters began thanking Arsenal for the midfielder.
Should the Merseysiders find the back of the net at the Etihad Stadium, it would leave City needing to score five goals to remain in the competition. They are a fantastic football side. Mohamed Salah is made of goals7.
Virgil van Dijk should have headed a fourth and Guardiola paced his technical area, seemingly looking to the turf for the answers his normally sharp tactical mind had entirely failed to provide.
Showing his frustration, Guardiola referenced the attack on the Borussia Dortmund team bus, when a man let off explosives along the route to the stadium before their Champions League quarter-final against Monaco in Germany past year. Bayern were ruthlessly picked off.
Pep Guardiola submitted a world-record £200million bid for Anfield’s atmosphere just hours after Man City’s 3-0 loss to Liverpool.
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“Up the other end of the pitch, keeping teams penned back, they’re great at that. This is Champions League”, he said.
