Sunday’s match-up between English league heavyweights Manchester City FC and Liverpool was the potential turning point in the title race, with Liverpool winning an exciting game in which Liverpool won in dramatic fashion towards the last 10 minutes of the game. Manchester City not only suffered a blow to their title hopes, but a heavy blow was dealt to their squad as their linchpin in midfield, Yaya Toure, had to be substituted early in the match due to an injury. A game like this was not short of dramatics either.
Liverpool got off to a rocking start as striker Luis Suarez played a perfect through ball to his teammate Raheem Sterling, who did well to receive the ball and calmly put his strike past Manchester defender Vincent Kompany and goalkeeper Joe Hart, all of this coming in the 6th minute of play.
Within the next 20 minutes Manchester City lost their midfielder Yaya Toure to injury, who was replaced by Javi Garcia, soon enough Liverpool put a second goal past Joe Hart off of a Martin Skrtel header, who had the job of diverting the ball from the corner delivered by captain Steven Gerrard. Liverpool and Manchester headed into the locker room at halftime, with the home fans giving a great energy to the game.
The away fans had something to cheer about after halftime however. Manuel Pellegrini replaced midfielder Jesus Navas with James Milner before the second half started. Milner made his mark on the game 10 minutes later when some excellent link-up play between him and midfielder Fernandinho led to a Manchester City goal by David Silva. 2-1 Liverpool.
Nearly 5 minutes later, Manchester City silenced the home crowd yet again when the Manchester City midfield played intricately in Liverpool’s 18 yard box, which led to a shot by David Silva, which took a deflection off of Liverpool defender Glen Johnson and went past the keeper for City’s second goal of the half, bringing the score level.
It was Liverpool, however, who capitalized on a defensive error by Manchester City to get their 3rd goal courtesy of Philippe Coutinho. Off of a Liverpool throw-in, defender Vincent Kompany sliced his normally easy clearance, and the ball fell to Coutinho who sent the ball past Joe Hart with a nice one-touch finish, sending the home crowd into a frenzy. Liverpool went down to 10 men late in the game when midfielder Jordan Henderson was shown a red card for a dangerous slide tackle, but it came too late to make an impact on the game.
Liverpool now control their own destiny to win the league, with a game against Chelsea FC on the horizon, Chelsea being 2 points behind the leaders Liverpool. Manchester City were sent 7 points back behind the leaders, however their 2 games in hand will be crucial for their title chase.