City 1-0 Liverpool (1-3 agg) in first half

We completely deserve to be in the semi-finals.

Liverpool came out with a renewed sense of objective, and Mohamed Salah finally bagged his obligatory goal in the 56th minute, effectively putting the tie away.

“I would say congratulations to Liverpool“. I really thought it was a joke.

“Not to disrespect Roma”.

Asked if Liverpool can win the competition, Robertson said: “Yeah, I think so, yeah!”

The first half pace was a marvel to behold, with Manchester City pressuring the Liverpool defense for nearly the entire 45 minutes and with multiple good chances to score. “We needed to react in the right way, I liked the reaction immediately after that”.

At the end of a week in which his Manchester City team suffered three defeats at the hands of English rivals, Pep Guardiola was in the unusual position of being on the defensive after they were eliminated from the Champions League by Liverpool.

Their players are often driven on by the club’s supporters, especially those with memories of final wins in Rome (twice), London, Paris and Istanbul, and they played their part during this emphatic, two-legged victory over the Premier League’s champions-elect.

Guardiola is demanding one last push from his players, who face Tottenham at Wembley on Saturday evening. “We were beaten by an exceptional team”, he said.

For the first time in his City career, Guardiola slumped to a third successive loss.

“Three at the back, created chances, controlled the counter attack perfectly”. And when the second half began, Liverpool had a renewed vigor to take on the runway Premier League leaders.

Liverpool recall striker Mohamed Salah for their Champions League clash at Manchester City.

Liverpool recovered from going 1-0 down inside two minutes as a result of Gabriel Jesus’ goal and escaped going further behind in the first half as Bernardo Silva struck the post before Leroy Sane controversially had a goal ruled out for offside.

Guardiola was incensed by the decision, earning himself a seat in the stands as he was sent off at half-time for his furious on-pitch rant at referee Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz.

“I know him from Spain”, Guardiola said. I didn’t insult him; I was polite.

“I said it was a goal”.

The Germany winger was flagged offside when he tapped in from close range, although replays showed that the ball had ricocheted his way off Liverpool’s James Milner – not a City player. It would have been different to go in 2-0. Gabriel Jesus netted after just two minutes to ramp up the tension and to set City’s comeback mission in motion. In these kinds of competitions, the impact is so big.

Despite a handsome aggregate win, Milner said Liverpool have to be better whoever they are drawn against in the semi-finals. There were plenty of things that we could have done better.

“We did not use those opportunities in the first half – we gave the ball away too quickly”.

“City took all the risks they could take”.