The Liverpool vs City rivalry has been the talk of the net. When Sir Alex called it a day and decided to retire from coaching, it was the end of an era for the entire premier league, not only Man Utd.
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Two years later, Liverpool had hired the German genius to architect the revival of the sleeping giant and on the blue side of Manchester, they signed the famous Pep Guardiola to be the captain of their ships. These two managers’ arrival to England marked the beginning of the premier league’s new era.
In fact, both managers had a very good taste of what it means to play in the premier league right after they came. Hell, Klopp actually got to witness the Leicester miracle sitting on the Liverpool bench and the next season both Pep 8 Jurgen were overshadowed by Chelsea’s Conte.
What we didn’t know is that a very heated rivalry was being slowly cooked in the background. Of course, the cities of Liverpool and Manchester always had their differences, but footballing-wise Liverpool was mostly concerned with the bigger brother of Manchester, however, that was about to change. Sit tight because this is one of the most exciting premier league stories that witnessed countless shifts of power dynamics.
LIVERPOOL VS CITY RIVALRY: The first meeting
Burdened by an ongoing 60-year Anfield curse, Pep walked into his first meeting with Klopp as a man city manager on New Year’s Eve. And thanks to an early Gini Wijnaldum goal, Klopp had the upper hand on the night. On the return fixture in City’s Etihad Stadium, Pep failed to return the favor as the game ended with an exciting draw with one goal in each net.
But as we already mentioned, this rivalry is one that was cooked slowly; both managers were reinforcing their armies with new signings and simultaneously feeding the players their style of football with a spoon, the Gegenpressing maniac on one hand and the tiki-taka godson on the other.
The start of the 17/18 season was the real turning point of the English premier league. Both Liverpool and Man City turned into totally different beasts, running riot and tearing apart opponents with ease. That is until September 2017, when the long-awaited clash of titans was due. It was a very intense game, one that saw the first shift of power towards the citizens.
The Spanish genius started to mark the English land as his territory with a 5-nil thrashing of the newly assembled Liverpool army. However, everybody knew Jurgen would never give up that easily, and on the return fixture, he welcomed his formidable opponent into his terrifying Anfield. And if you missed that game, we can’t feel sorry for you, because it was one of the greatest games in premier league history. A 4-3 thriller that saw Klopp’s Liverpool come out on top and the birth of Guardiola’s worst nightmare. Their matches were simply electrifying, 90 minutes of pure adrenaline, Football at its best!
And trust me, it gets even better. In the same season, a Champions League quarter-final draw gifted us with two more spectacles on the biggest stage of club football.
Two games that completely shifted the power dynamics to Liverpool’s side, Klopp was officially labeled ‘the Guardiola boogeyman’ right after these two games. Liverpool completely dominated Man City on both legs, they ate and left no crumbs. However, Pep was on his way to a historic premier league title win, Man City ended the season with a record-breaking 100 points with 2 games lost and 106 goals scored, a title run that granted that Man City squad the right to enter the debate of the greatest premier league teams of all time!
On the other hand, Liverpool came out empty-handed that season and barely made a Champions League qualifying spot but make no mistake because that spot turned out to be very valuable later on in this story.
Hey, when did goal 90 ever fail you on a promise? As we told you it just keeps getting better. The 18/19 season was just too good to be true. Liverpool was on a hunt to end their 30-year title drought and oh boy these were scary days. Just let me go out on a limb here and say that the 19/20 season witnessed a relentless fight between two of the best premier league teams ever if not the absolute best. Finally, City managed to end their 65-year curse and won at the Anfield.
Despite the heated competition, the City ships kept sailing and went on to win back-to-back titles with 98 points in their hands while Klopp’s men came short only I point behind with 97. You must say what Guardiola was doing is impressive but to come this close while also competing in the Champions League is very impressive too. Liverpool didn’t just compete though, they were crowned the champions of Europe in 2019.
2020 on the other hand was the year of miracles. Guardiola and his men just raised their white tissues to the monsters of Klopp. Liverpool was unbelievably good that they started to get invincible shouts up until Watford snatched it all away. However, to end the league with only 3 games lost and 18 points ahead of the city is not too shabby either. Ladies and gentlemen Liverpool managed to finally get their hands on the premier league title, truly a year of miracles. But that wasn’t the only one as City reached their first-ever Champions League final and unfortunately for them, they lost to Tuchel’s Chelsea by only one goal.
The next season, Liverpool dipped and everybody thought that this is just a warrior’s break and a result of a burnout, but you know Pep, he’s built differently. The machines of Manchester City kept their outstanding performances and the power dynamic heavily shifted towards them.
Last year’s triumph masked Liverpool’s underlying issues such as their aging squad, but the city just doesn’t know how to slow down. They went on to win another premier league title with massive distance separating them from any premier league team out there. Yes, their games against Liverpool remained as exciting as it gets and kept going back and forth but City always came out on top at the end of the season.
Liverpool started the 21/22 season differently though, they retained their amazing form. The rivalry gave us yet another breathtaking season, the title was not decided until the very last 30 mins of the league. City was down 2 nil to Aston Villa while Liverpool was just starting their coming back from a 1 nil result against Wolves. Enter Ilkay Gundogan, just 14 minutes prior to Liverpool being crowned as champions; the German midfielder turned the tables in 5 minutes of time and City went on to win yet another title with just I point ahead of Liverpool. Even a movie scriptwriter can’t make this up, just wow!
Pep hasn’t had enough though, he signed a Norwegian tank that terrorized the entire world. Erling Haaland was the missing piece of the puzzle, they finally went on to win the Champions League and to a historic treble. In the meantime, Liverpool didn’t even make it to the top 4 in one of their worst seasons since Klopp came to England. However, their head-to-head games with the city maintained their competitive aura.
And here we are in the international break of the 23/24 season desperately waiting for their clash that’s just around the corner and what makes it really special is that it’s a totally new Liverpool, one that has managed to renovate their front lines and also they’re only one point behind the leaders which is of course man city. This rivalry is a gift that just keeps on giving, and make no mistake here. It ain’t a cute one, don’t let the diplomacy of the press conferences fool you, it’s as heated as it gets behind closed doors. Also, it provided us with some ugly scenes over the years.
Let us know who you think is going to win the next battle at the Etihad and mix it up with some score predictions also.
