Internet Desk: Liverpool beat Manchester City 1-0 in the year-end classic of high-profile Premier League football. An early goal from Wijnaldum put the reds ahead, who managed to hold it to the end and now have the second most consolidated position, four points clear of the Manchester blues.
After an intense afternoon, marked by a tough but record victory for Chelsea and a Manchester United comeback, 2016 ended at Anfield with a classic. That was very intense, as was anticipated, although without great opportunities.
The only goal of Saturday’s game, with 53,122 supporters in Liverpool, was scored in the 7th minute of the first half. In good counter-attack, the Brazilian Firmino received in the middle and touched on the left to Lallana. The striker advanced in speed and crossed accurately to Wijnaldum, who rose much between two scorers, one of them the Brazilian Fernandinho, and headed the ball firm for the networks of the Chilean goalkeeper Bravo.
With the beautiful pass, Lallana went on to have seven assists and seven goals in this English edition. On the other side, the City had Agüero’s return, which returned after four games of suspension caused by hard entrance in Chelsea’s David Luiz. The Argentine, however, had a dull performance.
The striker gave a wrong kick in good counterattack from City in the first half and had difficulties getting rid of the markers. To complete, he even took a Mignolet hat, out of the area, in a brave move by Liverpool goalkeeper in the first time.
Also in the first leg, in the 27th minute, Firmino even missed a great chance to score when receiving Milner’s beautiful shot, but he could not dominate the ball to come face-to-face with goalkeeper Bravo, who anticipated and cleared the danger.
The final stage was even more drowsy than the first. And City continued to suffer to create scoring opportunities. In two rare chances, Agüero first stopped in defense of Mignolet in the 8th minute and then, at 10, David Silva took a sharp shot in the entrance of the area that passed near the right crossbar of the goalkeeper
From that, what was seen was a classic rather truncated and with no other great opportunity of goal. Liverpool, cautious, began to manage the score, which did without any difficulties, given the inefficiency of City to create offensive plays. Thus, Liverpool closed the year guaranteeing the party of their fans, while the team of Guardiola will start 2017 lamenting the poor performance displayed in the classic.