The two sides meet in the Capital One Cup final on Sunday, with Liverpool keen to get their hands on their first piece of silverware under manager Jurgen Klopp. That 4-1 victory for Liverpool in November was greeted by many who saw it as the first evidence presented in England of the genius of Jürgen Klopp.
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This Sunday, however, both Manuel Pellegrini and Jurgen Klopp will be focused exclusively on Wembley Stadium, as they battle for honors in the League Cup.
City are the favourites, but former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has claimed that the nous Klopp demonstrated by leading Borussia Dortmund to five trophies will give the underdogs the edge at Wembley.
“Clubs with a big history like Liverpool, it is always the same problem if they are not successful in the present”.
“We make a lot of mistakes in the first 15 minutes so they decide the game early, but all the games are different”.
“City are in a good moment and it will be a very hard game, but I am greedy and I want to win the cup”. City, meanwhile, had to travel back from Ukraine, where they beat Dynamo Kiev 3-1 to put themselves in a commanding position to move onto the quarterfinals of the Champions League for the first time.
“When we make the decision on which is the best line-up, I don’t like to upset players, to say “sorry you are not involved” or things like this”.
“It’s all 100 per cent in finals”.
Both teams managed important wins in European competitions this week. This is the logical final.
“I have the chance to win three titles [before leaving]”, said City boss Manuel Pellegrini with the Chilean set to leave the Etihad at the end of the season. He will also have Wilfried Bony and Jesus Navas back at his disposal. Kevin de Bruyne is making good progress on his knee injury, incurred on the way to the final against Everton, whilst Samir Nasri has taken part in light training and hopes to return soon following a troublesome lay-off with hamstring issues.
Sergio Aguero and Daniel Sturridge could provide the key for both sides in front of goal. That’s why this game is of critical importance for Liverpool and they’ll throw everything they’ve got at Manchester City.
– Klopp has now reached a cup final in each of his last five seasons as a manager, but he has lost the last three – the Champions League final at Wembley 2013 and successive DFB-Pokal finals in 2014 and 2015.
Liverpool, who are eighth in the Premier League, are also through to the last 16 of the Europa Cup – where they will face Manchester United – after beating Augsburg 1-0 at Anfield on Thursday. In this Liverpool team no one really jumps out.
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But since then a litany of niggling injuries has restricted him to 28 appearances from a possible 101 for Liverpool and kept him away from the worldwide scene for over 18 months.
