© EuroFootball.com
On the second day of Christmas, Thursday, in the XVIII round of the English Premier League at the Etihad Stadium, the weapons clashed between the two teams of the first quarter - Manchester City and Liverpool.
At the start of the match, both teams aggressively attacked the opponents' goals: the home team goalkeeper Jesus Navas hit the ball into the goal post with a head shot, while Raheem Sterling couldn't score a goal due to a referee error.
Nevertheless, Brendan Rodgers' team managed to take the lead after a beautiful attack, when Luis Suarez passed the ball to Raheem Sterling, who let Philippe Coutinho finish the attack.
However, the "reds" did not maintain this lead for long. The "Man City" players who conceded a goal immediately began to put pressure on the opponents' goal, which paid off in the 31st minute. The team captain Vincent Kompany equalized the score after a corner kick.
Approaching the end of the first half, the "City" team managed to take the lead when forward Alvaro Negredo ran past the goalkeeper and struck the ball into the net with force, and Simon Mignolet could not resist the powerful shot.
In the second half, the "Man City" team took the initiative and tried to increase their advantage with positional attacks. Meanwhile, Brendan Rodgers' team tried to equalize the score with counterattacks and individual positional attacks.
However, Manuel Pellegrini's team managed to maintain their advantage and secured three points for themselves.
After this round, the London Arsenal players reclaimed the first position in the tournament table. The "Man City" team moved up to second place, Chelsea to third. Liverpool fell from first place to fourth.
Starting lineups:
"Manchester City": Hart, Zabaleta, Lescott, Kompany, Kolarov, Fernandinho, Yaya Toure, Nasri (72' Milner), Silva (87' Javi Garcia), Negredo (77' Dzeko), Navas.
"Liverpool": Mignolet, Cissokho, Skrtel, Sakho, Johnson, Lucas (82' Iago Aspas), Allen, Henderson, Sterling, Coutinho (68' Moses), Suarez.
