Jurgen Klopp admitted that his Liverpool side gave Manchester City “too many opportunities” in the second half at Anfield.
The game started really slowly but Liverpool grew into it the more the first half went on. Their best chances of the opening 45 minutes fell to Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino.
Man City did not get going but they were handed a chance to take the lead as Raheem Sterling was brought down in the penalty area.
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Ilkay Gundogan stepped up to take the penalty but he fired it over the bar from as it remained 0-0. City started the second half much better than the first as they got the first goal a few minutes after the restart.
Gundogan made up for his earlier penalty miss as he smashed the ball home from close range after Alisson parried away Phil Foden’s initial shot.
Ruben Diaz made a rare error as he brought down Mo Salah in the penalty area after the forward took the ball from him. The forward took the spot-kick himself and he finished well to equalise.
This gave Liverpool confidence but the game was taken away from them via two fatal mistakes from Alisson in the space of three minutes.
The Brazillian gave the ball away twice which led to Foden being given it on the edge. He brilliantly dribbled past the Reds defence before he squared it to Gundogan who tapped home for his second.
A couple of minutes later, Alisson got caught out again as he gave it away to Bernardo Silva. The midfielder chipped it across the face of goal to Raheem Sterling who headed it into the net from a few yards out.
Foden rounded off a superb individual performance with a goal of his own before the end. He cut in from the right flank before he struck it sweetly past Alisson.
This is Liverpool’s third straight defeat at Anfield. They are now ten points behind Man City having played a game more than their rivals.
Speaking with Sky Sports post-match, as cited by BBC Sport, Klopp labelled Foden as a “genius” after his superb display at Anfield:
“Big part of the game was a brilliant game from my side. I can see in your eyes you see differently. I really liked it. First half played really good football. Second half, City changed the system slightly. A little adaptation and we would be in the game again. But in the start of the second half we did not give enough options to play and gave the first goal away.
“We gave them too much opportunity. They scored that goal, we scored the equaliser. We were good again but then made two massive mistakes that is clear. At 3-1 down at this level, it is tough to take. Then Foden with a genius situation for the fourth goal.
“If we play football like we did for a long time tonight then we will win football games, 100%.”
“It is true as well we did not give [Alisson] a lot of options, especially the first one. Second yeah, he just mishit the ball, maybe he had cold feet, it sounds funny but don’t know the situation. He has saved our lives many times, no doubt about that, tonight he made mistakes.”
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