Liverpool and Manchester City open the New Year with a decisive meeting



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Exciting meetings The Reds gather in the city during the 21st round of the Premiership

AFP

January 1, 2019

Liverpool will enter the English Premier League on Thursday with a quarter-final clash in the Manchester City stronghold.

The season is still almost in the middle and Liverpool will play 17 league games after Thursday's meeting with City, but the Reds are aware that a return to the three points of Union Stadium will bring them closer than ever to the long-awaited title since 1990 .

With nine points ahead of Tottenham in beating Saturday's 5-1 win over Arsenal and Argentina coach Mauricio Buccetino's 3-1 defeat at Wolverhampton, Liverpool hopes to beat City in hope to retain the title and extend the gap to 10 points if he won the UEFA Champions League for the first time. In the league since November 21, 2015 (4-1).

German coach Jurgen Klopp is committed to giving his team, the only one not to have lost this season, everything he has on Thursday, refusing to talk about the title and the difference between his team and his supporters.

"We do not think about the difference even for a second … What we think are the 54 points (the Liverpool balance up to now)," the club said on its website. Our ability to do this is to continue on this path. "


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"We are all aware that Manchester City is a fantastic team … We are going to go and we will give everything to try to get a positive result," he said. ).

The German coach hopes to be able to repeat the scenario of his last visit to "Union Stadium", where he came back victorious 2-1 last season with two goals from Mohamed Salah and Fermino in the return match of Quarterfinals of the Champions League after winning three home draws.

It will not be an easy task for Spanish coach Josep Guardiola, who was about to win the league first leg this season at Anfield Stadium because of the loss of Algerian Riad Mehrez who lost a penalty the 86th minute, which ended the match with a draw.

After a 2-1 home defeat against Crystal Palace and a 2-1 home win over Leicester City, City re-established Sunday with a 3-1 win over Southampton and a 2-0 win over Tottenham Tuesday. Looking for a victory to stay in the competition.

– Indicate points means the end of the race –

After his team's victory in Sunday's match, Guardiola said any additional points would defeat Liverpool. City remained undefeated in the first 15 stages, before winning three defeats in four games, allowing Liverpool to take the lead.

"Given Liverpool's position, we know that losing more points means it's over," said former Barcelona coach and Bayern Munich after defeating Southampton.

"We have a discount that is the best team in Europe and one of the top four teams in the world … Thursday will be a challenge and we will try to win." If we keep our site as long as possible, we can reach the end of the season and we will continue to fight. For the title. "

"It's a match between the first and the second, I know the difference is huge – seven points – mostly because they're strong and consistent (in their level and their results), but that's not the case. is a home game and I hope Union Stadium fans will bring us extra help. "

– Indicate points means the end of the race –

After his team's victory in Sunday's match, Guardiola said any additional points would defeat Liverpool. City remained undefeated in the first 15 stages, before winning three defeats in four games, allowing Liverpool to take the lead.

"Given Liverpool's position, we know that losing more points means it's over," said former Barcelona coach and Bayern Munich after defeating Southampton.

"We have a discount that is the best team in Europe and one of the top four teams in the world … Thursday will be a challenge and we will try to win." If we keep our site as long as possible, we can reach the end of the season and we will continue to fight. For the title. "

"It's a match between the first and the second, I know the difference is huge – seven points – mostly because they're strong and consistent (in their level and their results), but that's not the case. is a home game and I hope Union Stadium fans will bring us extra help. "

United came out victorious in their third game of the year since Portuguese Jose Mourinho temporarily replaced Portugal at the end of the season, beating Bournemouth 4-1.

In addition to the positive results with Solskjaer, French midfielder Paul Pogpa, who has been renewed since the departure of Portugal, has marked the current era in Manchester, scoring four goals and three badists in all three Solskjaer matches.

We have won matches with the former coach, but we now have a different style of play. We are more aggressive in attacking and creating new opportunities. That's how we want to play with them, "he said about the team's position after Mourinho.

Solskjaer said Pogpa's performance was "a performance at the top of the midfield".

Arsenal, who are five points behind fourth place in the Champions League, hopes to recover quickly against his neighbor Fulham on Tuesday, while Chelsea, fourth, will host Wednesday Southampton.

The first phase of 2019 begins Tuesday afternoon with Everton and Leicester City, with West Ham Wednesday with Brighton, Wolverhampton with Crystal Palace, Hadersfield with Burnley and Bournemouth with Watford.

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