England – Today, Sunday, at 6:45 p.m., Anfield Stadium will host the Manchester City vs. Liverpool match during a decisive confrontation in the final meters of the hectic race between them, at the top of the matches of the twenty-eighth round of the English Premier League, “Premier League.”
Spanish coach Pep Guardiola, Manchester City coach, faces one last night of sleeplessness before his personal conflict with German “Reds” coach Jurgen Klopp in his final year at Anfield Road.
Klopp’s sudden announcement of his departure from the Reds at the end of this season gave additional weight to the decisive match between Manchester City and Liverpool, as one point separated them 11 stages before the end (63 to 62).
Although Guardiola’s team has won five of the last six league titles, Klopp has always posed the most prominent threat to his rival, as he succeeded in penetrating City’s dominance by winning the title in 2020.
Guardiola revealed the depth of his respect for Klopp when he admitted that the German’s departure would make it easier for him to relax before Manchester City’s confrontations with Liverpool, saying: “I will sleep better.” “The matches against Liverpool were a nightmare.”
Guardiola and Klopp…whose balance is tilted? Although Klopp and Guardiola had previously faced each other in the German League when the former was coaching Borussia Dortmund and the latter was coaching Bayern Munich, their confrontations in the Premier League raised their battle for supremacy to new heights.
The balance is tilted in favor of Guardiola in the English Premier League, where the two have met 15 times since 2016, with the Spaniard winning five times, compared to Klopp’s 4 victories, and they tied 6 times.
Despite this, victory in the home of the “Reds” is one of the few achievements that are still far from Guardiola’s reach as City coach. The Citizens’ only win away to Liverpool since 2003 was achieved behind closed doors three years ago.
In light of the Manchester City match against Liverpool, which may decide the identity of the league champion, Guardiola finds himself facing a historic moment in a final confrontation with Klopp, who may deprive him of a fourth consecutive title if he emerges with the three points.
City goes into the match ecstatic about reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League after defeating Copenhagen in Denmark, back and forth, with the same score, 3-1, while Liverpool crushed its host, Sparta Prague, in the Czech Republic, with a score of 5-1, in the first leg of the Europa League semi-final.
In the Manchester City match against Liverpool, Guardiola is counting on the brilliant Phil Foden, who led him to victory over his arch-neighbor United, 3-1, in the last stage, and his deadly Norwegian striker, Erling Haaland, who tops the scorers’ charts with 18 goals.
On the other hand, Liverpool regained the efforts of its Egyptian striker Mohamed Salah after his absence from the field due to injury, to participate against Sparta Prague, after Klopp relied on a group of young players after suffering from a large number of injuries in his ranks.
The “Squawka” network expected that the two teams would enter the match with the following two formations:
