EPL: Man City and Liverpool share the spoils

Manchester City and Liverpool produced a match of the season contender display as the Premier League giants played out an exhilarating draw. 

Winning the tie offered a route to the top of the table for both teams, and it was clear that both teams were eager to grab the bragging rights. 

Manchester City and Liverpool have evolved into a fierce modern day Premier League rivalry in recent seasons. So, the stakes were already high regardless of the league positions of the clubs. 

Liverpool chose to stick with the team that had dismantled Porto 5-1 in the Champions League a few days ago. 

Meaning, Trent Alexander Arnold watched on from the sidelines again as the ever reliant James Milner played as left back.

Curtis Jones also retained his place in the All Reds midfield. 

Manchester City, on the other hand, did not have such fond memories of the midweek. 

Pep Guardiola saw his team succumb to a 2-0 defeat at Parc Des Princes.

Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling, who played in that tie, were dropped to make room for Phil Foden and Gabriel Jesus. 

After beating Chelsea last week, Guardiola was hoping to keep up the momentum with another big win. 

Manchester City’s record at Anfield is far from impressive, but Guardiola’s men did not let history to dictate the flow of the game. 

City dominate first half

Manchester City were undeniably the most dominant side in the first half, but they had nothing to show for it. 

Bernardo Silva picked out the ball deep in the midfield and launched a superb run to dance past a swarm of Liverpool players.

The Portugal international did brilliantly to pass the ball to Foden, who could not put the ball past an on-rushing Alisson. 

Kevin de Bruyne failed to keep his header on target later on, so the teams went into the interval with the scores locked at 0-0. 

Liverpool did not match the intensity of the visitors in the first half. Klopp was not happy with what he was seeing, and felt the urge to try a new approach. 

Liverpool improve in second half

The German’s halftime pep talk proved successful as Jota forced a save out of Ederson minutes before Mane opened the score. 

Mohamed Salah teed the ball up to his Senegalese teammate’s path and Mane perfectly placed the ball into the far corner. 

City responded almost immediately through Foden. The 21-year-old held on to a Jesus pass and fired the ball into the net. 

Salah then scored a wonderful goal to put the homeside ahead again. 

The Egyptian worked his way through a congested City d-box and dispatched a shot that rattled the net once again. 

But, it was not the final goal of the day, as Kevin de Bruyne made the scoreline 2-2 with a powerful right foot drive.  

The ball took a deflection off Joel Matip, which made it 2-2.

The teams came closer to scoring in the last few minutes and set up an end-to-end finish to the game.   

Liverpool enter the second international break of the season with 15 points to their name. City occupy the third position with 14.