Liverpool pressure crushes City in the Cup

Mané controls a ball against Cancelo.TONY OBRIEN (Action Images via Reuters)

The teams that best play football in Europe met this Saturday in the semifinal of the English Cup, the first of the three titles that are disputed as favorites.

In the absence of knowing the outcome of the Premier and the semifinals of the Champions League, Jürgen Klopp's Liverpool crushed Guardiola's Manchester City and secured a place in the cup final.

He did it with amazing authority against an opponent who paid dearly for the rotation.

It turned out that Steffen, Aké and Fernandinho, regular substitutes badly supported by Stones, did not last even half a game against Sadio Mané, spearhead of the attack and leader of a defensive organization as impeccable as it is daring.

Klopp is excited about Colombian Luis Diaz.

To make room for him in the starting team, the Liverpool coach assigned him the left wing, until recently the sacred redoubt of Mané.

The maneuver, far from generating a conflict with the best player on the team, made the two protagonists happy.

To Díaz, because he placed himself in his natural position;

and to Mané because it allowed him to satisfy his ambition for being

.

The double fit put all the machinery into operation.

Liverpool's victory was built on the pressure that Mané directed against the center-backs and the City goalkeeper, stretching all his teammates on the accordion, who followed him disciplined, each one drowning his man.

Until a few years ago such a tactical arrangement would have shattered the nerves of the bravest coaches.

Klopp dared to walk on the ledge.

Every time City tried to play on grass, Salah jumped with Aké, Mané with Stones and goalkeeper Steffen, Luis Díaz with Cancelo, Thiago with Fernandinho, Keita with Bernardo Silva, Fabinho with Foden, and the full-backs, Alexander Arnold and Robertson shot at the minimum on the opposite wings, depending on the direction of the play, in a chain of pairings that often left Konaté and Virgil van Dijk hand in hand with two forwards, usually Sterling and Jesús.

Without a safety net behind, Liverpool gambled everything on Mané's power of persuasion over his teammates and the intimidation they caused in the opposite camp.

The success was complete.

Hemmed in on its way out, City found itself closed on all sides.

A few minutes into the game he began to shoot long, releasing possession to aerial combat.

There the tall Fabinho, Konaté and Van Dijk prevailed, who quickly looked for Thiago or Mané himself.

The Senegalese took care of the work of three men.

With the ball he officiated as a winger, as a false nine and inside, and without the ball he multiplied in intermediate zones to lead the defense in advance.

Thanks to a move from him, Liverpool obtained the corner that Konaté dispatched to the net after an unstoppable irruption.

Taking Jesús and Aké ahead, the Frenchman headed the 1-0.

Within 10 minutes, City found themselves in a triple bind.

Dispossessed of the ball, down on the scoreboard and at the mercy of a completely shaky defense.

Aké, a regular substitute, was no help in propping up the languid Stones;

Zinchenko, the left back, has not played regularly for months;

and Cancelo, on the right side, was on his line, very insecure with the ball.

Far from stabilizing a collapsing structure,

The ghostly game of City

City midfielders and attackers must have been discouraged every time they looked back.

Frustration spread through the blue ranks, unable to put together a chain of passes worthy of their prestige, when Zack Steffen, City's substitute goalkeeper, tried to imitate Ederson.

When Stones delayed a ball to him, he controlled it, paused, touched it again to accommodate it and, when he was hesitating about giving it another touch, Mané introduced him.

The Senegalese made 20 meters like lightning and dotted the ball into the net.

Minute 17 passed and the semifinal was sentenced.

Down 2-0, City plunged into a ghostly game.

Insecure before the hesitations of their defense, the players stopped believing in what they were doing.

Just in case, Van Dijk and Konaté nipped any sign of progress in the bud, in a shocking hierarchical contrast to the defense on the other side of the field.

It was in this state of stupor that Liverpool grew.

Not only because he redoubled the pressure just as viciously, but because he began to loosen up on the ball as well.

At the stroke of halftime, after a very fine combination by Thiago, who shared the game in the rival area, surrounded by defenses and without spaces, Mané made it 3-0.

The second part was left to comply with the file.

It served City to clean up the tarnished image.

Grealish's goal after the restart roused the fans, and Bernardo Silva's goal in added time suggested an extraordinary comeback.

Nothing that reality did not deny after the defenses decided the duel between the teams that best attack.

Crystal Palace and Chelsea will play this Sunday the other semi-final.

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