Just a week after meeting in the Premier League, Liverpool and Manchester City met again to determine who would make it through to the final of the FA Cup.
Jürgen Klopp made seven changes to the team that drew with Benfica in mid-week, with Alisson Becker, Ibrahima Konaté, Naby Keïta and Luis Diaz the only men to continue on. Liverpool set up in their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Pep Guardiola also made seven changes to the side that progressed past Atlético Madrid in the Champions League. Even accounting for the injuries to Kyle Walker and Kevin De Bruyne, Guardiola put out a weakened side, with John Stones, João Cancelo, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden the only players to stay on from mid-week. City lined up in a 4-4-2 shape.
After adapting their pressing structure last week, Liverpool returned to their usual scheme and engaged City high up the pitch. Whereas last week the wingers followed City’s full-backs, this time around Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz would press the centre-backs while curving their runs to block the passes out to the full-backs. Sadio Mané would generally stick to Fernandinho in midfield but would step up to pressure goalkeeper Zack Steffen when the situation called for it. This structure combined with pressing intensity from Liverpool left City with little time on the ball and no free man, seeing them give the ball away in dangerous areas.
City soon attempted to correct this by having Bernardo Silva drop in next to Fernandinho, doubling up on Mané, but this didn’t work either, as Liverpool’s shape meant Thiago Alcântara or Keïta were on hand to push up and cut off the space for Silva too.
City then adapted again, pulling Fernandinho back into the defensive line and pushing Nathan Aké out to the left flank, stretching Liverpool’s frontline to open up the pass from Aké into Oleksandr Zinchenko. This still didn’t work though, as Liverpool simply pushed Trent Alexander-Arnold forward to press Zinchenko, ensuring City couldn’t outnumber them in this area, while Konaté shifted across to cover the space Alexander-Arnold left behind him.
Whereas Liverpool’s press was making it very difficult for City to play out, City’s did little to stop Liverpool. Jack Grealish and Raheem Sterling would initially be stationed near Fabinho, but Konaté and Van Dijk would split wide, dragging City’s forwards away from the Brazilian. As a result Silva would get pulled forward onto Fabinho, leaving Fernandinho alone in midfield. Thiago would regularly drop in next to Fabinho, ensuring Liverpool could play through City’s press and get at the isolated Fernandinho.
The same thing happened when City had possession. Silva would push forward into attack, meaning that when Liverpool regained the ball they could transition through the midfield. Fernandinho was perhaps fortunate not to be sent off due to his persistent fouling, but it was City’s fault for leaving a 36 year-old isolated.
Liverpool were nearly always looking for Salah in transition, while Alisson would also hit long balls towards the Egyptian.
Liverpool once again opened the scoring from a set-piece, when Konaté headed home a corner just as he had in both legs against Benfica. Using a mixed-marking system, City left the marking of 6ft 4 Konaté to 5 ft 9 Gabriel Jesus, so it wasn’t exactly surprising that the centre-back was able to barge him out the way to meet Andy Robertson’s cross. Seeing as Fabinho and Van Dijk were marked by Grealish and Silva respectively, basically any one of the three could have scored, showing one of the downsides to Guardiola’s preference for small technical players.
They then doubled their lead when Mané pounced on Steffen to slide tackle the ball into the net. Although it was described as lucky, or perhaps more unlucky on Steffen’s part, it was actually the goal that best fit in with the game’s patterns of play. John Stones had no one to pass to, so went back to the goalkeeper, who lost the ball because of Liverpool’s pressing intensity. Steffen’s touch failed to stop the ball, seeing it continue to roll so that it was too close to him to kick away; Steffen then realised the ball wasn’t where he thought it was and had to look down at it, where it had rolled directly underneath his body. The goalkeeper had to take a touch to get it out of his feet, but Mané was already on top of him and the touch ran directly into the Senegalese to scramble it across the line. It’s just a poor initial touch that catches out Steffen, but he would have easily had the time to correct himself if Liverpool weren’t pressing so intensely, and the ball probably wouldn’t even have been going back to him if City were able to play out from the back.
If the first two goals were failures on City’s part, the third came from excellent play by Liverpool. City had been pulled across to Liverpool’s right to defend a throw-in, so Alexander-Arnold switched play out to Diaz on the left. After a blocked shot, the ball was moved back to Thiago, who squeezed in between Silva and Grealish, played a one-two with Alexander-Arnold then chipped a pass over Zinchenko’s head to Mané down the outside. Rather than taking a touch to control the dropping ball, Mané simply struck across it, volleying it inside the near post.
City pulled a goal back immediately after half-time. Guardiola switched around Foden and Grealish, giving greater pressing intensity to the frontline. Foden’s pressure saw Robertson give the ball away and Fernandinho attacked the space he left behind him, catching Liverpool spread out across the pitch. Liverpool’s backline and Fabinho got back to defend, but neither Thiago nor Keïta made much of an effort to retreat with them, ensuring Jesus could just lay the ball back to Grealish to finish.
City continued to try to press Liverpool high up the pitch, but, having opened up a lead, the Reds simply looked to hang onto the ball, making City chase after it, and before too long their intensity had to drop.
City managed to pull back another goal in injury time. They switched play from left to right and substitute Riyad Mahrez beat Robertson down the outside and shot at goal from the byline. Konaté had stepped across to cut out a potential cutback to Silva, but with the ball deflecting off of Alisson, it bobbled towards the back post. As Silva was running in the direction of the goal, whereas Konaté had moved the other way, the Portuguese was able to get to the ball first and scramble it across the line.
Despite the late scare, Liverpool held on to see themselves through to the final.
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