16 min The penalty drama aside, it’s been a surprisingly bloodless start to the game. City are keeping the ball a lot better.
15 min On reflection, that wasn’t a particular bad penalty from Haaland – it was a fantastic save from Mamardashvili because the ball would have ended up in the bottom corner.
14 min There was another VAR check to see whether Mamaradashvili was off his line before the kick was taken. But he timed it perfectly and made a superb save.
13 min Not the greatest penalty – swept low to the right but not hit with ferocious power. Even so, what a moment for Mamaradashvili, who got down excellently to push it away.
12 min There was a mistake from Konate earlier in the move – he got in Bradley’s way and kicked the ball against Doku, who was first onto the ricochet and then went past Mamardashvili.
Liverpool aren’t happy. Their argument, I suspect, is that Doku initiated the contact. I’m not sure he did.
11 min Mamardashvili’s knee caught Doku’s left foot and tripped him. It wasn’t deliberate but it was a foul.
9 min: Big penalty appeal for City! Doku gets away from Bradley and Konate, goes past the outrushing Mamaradashvili and then falls over. Was he tripped? There was an almighty scramble after that, with a couple of shots blocked.
I think this will be a penalty to City.
8 min At the other end Salah, full of intent, knocks a bouncing ball into the City area, forcing the last man Dias to step across and clear.
7 min Doku leads a City break and plays a brilliant angled pass to Foden… who miscontrols it. Crikey. With a good first touch he would have had a clear shooting chance on his right foot.
6 min “I’m not sure how other Liverpool fans might feel about Wirtz being in the team,” wonders Peadar de Burca. “He’s obviously great, and he needs games to get his Premier League groove on, but why do I keep thinking of Juan ‘too good for the Premiership’ Veron...? Still, it would be great fun to hear Slot say, “He’s a f***ing great player and you’re all f***ing idiots.”
It’d be even better if he went full Fergie and said ‘Youse’.
5 min Doku, who has made a lively start, nicks a loose ball on the edge of the area and forces his way between two Liverpool defenders. A third red shirt, Konate, steps across to clear.
5 min Gravenberch is penalised twice in the space of a minute for tackles on O’Reilly and Doku. Nothing naughty or yellow card-worthy, but I need to write something here.
4 min “Afternoon Rob,” begins Simon McMahon. “When you said ‘technical problems galore’, I thought you were offering a concise three-word history of Scottish football.”
That’d need to be a four-word history surely?
3 min A slow start, with City passing the ball around meticulously in the middle third and Liverpool trying to set traps.
1 min Peep peep. Liverpool kick off from right to left as we watch; this, as you probably know by now, is Pep Guardiola’s 1,000th game as manager.
The teams, then. Manchester City, who made a few changes v Dortmund in midweek, go back to the XI that beat Bournemouth a week ago. Liverpool are unsurprisingly unchanged from the win over Real Madrid.
Here’s what happened in the 2pm games.
Apologies folks, we’ve had technical problems galore. When I say ‘we’…
All sorted now, and this very big game is about to kick off.
Manchester City (4-3-3ish) Donnarumma; Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly; Bernardo, Nico, Foden; Cherki, Haaland, Doku.
Subs: Trafford, Reijnders, Stones, Ake, Marmoush, Ait-Nouri, Savinho, Bobb, Lewis.
Liverpool (4-3-3ish) Mamardashvili; Bradley, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Szoboszlai, Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Ekitike, Wirtz.
Subs: Woodman, Gomez, Endo, Kerkez, Isak, Chiesa, Jones, Gakpo, Ngumoha.
Referee Chris Kavanagh.
Hope comes in many forms. Faith. An unlikely human connection. A crescendo of such defiant beauty that you briefly forget the utter state of everything. And a 2-2 draw at the Stadium of Light. Brian Brobbey’s late equaliser for Sunderland against Arsenal last night was exceedingly good news for Manchester City and Liverpool, who should be full of the joys going into this afternoon’s game at the Etihad Stadium.
They have the chance to close the gap on Arsenal to four and five points respectively. That’s the good news; the bad news is that only one of them – tops – can do it. City and Liverpool seem to be hitting their stride after dodgy spells earlier in the season. City have won 10 of the last 13 in all competitions; Liverpool ended their slump with defiant victories over Aston Villa and Real Madrid.
They kept clean sheets in both games, too. That won’t be so easy against Erling Haaland, the red wine of any contemporary clean sheet metaphor. Haaland is in rampant form, with 10 goals in his last six games at the Etihad, and has gone to another level this season. He was vaguely competent beforehand.
Kick off 4.30pm.