Salah returns and shutters Manchester City’s hopes

The two clubs met in the second leg of the clash where Manchester City were hopeful of not cutting down the 3-0 deficit from the first but also to turn around the tie into their favor and qualify to the next round. People were interested in finding out if Salah was going to start the match or not after picking up a groin injury in the first leg of this clash. It was a relief for the Liverpool fans when they heard that their start man was available for contention. Pep Guardiola made changes to the team that played the away leg as he introduced Raheem Sterling and Laporte back to the squad ahead of Gundogan and Kompany. The shocking omission was Aguero who was benched for Jesus in an attacking team filled with pacey forwards. The match kicked off with high expectations on both teams to produce an amazing performance.  Manchester City was off to a good start as they dispossessed Van Dijk and Sterling fed Jesus to score the first. It was 1-0 after 3 minutes and Liverpool were definitely parking. Manchester City dominated the first half and created many chances that should have hit the back of the net. Bernardo Silva hit the post once and Sane put the ball into the net but the ball was controversially ruled offside. City really felt hard done in a match that was intense and saw the referee producing about 5 yellow cards and saw Pep Guardiola being sent to the stands for his outrageous reaction at half-time. Arteta was under pressure as he was the man-in charge and Liverpool scored an equalizer through Salah after Mane’s brilliant run. The Manchester club had a mountain to climb as they needed to score 4 more goals to qualify. Aguero was introduced at the expense of David Silva but the damage was done. The match ended 2-1 to Liverpool after Firmino scored the second on the 77th minute which means that Liverpool are through to the semifinals with a 5-1 aggregate score. The Egyptian has once again made the difference in a big match as he scored a killer blow. It has been a while since Africa had a player that would contend for the Ballon d’Or. Mo Salah is a contender this year. What’s your take?

In other news, Barcelona were knocked out of the UEFA Champions League after losing 3-0 to Roma away from home. Roma had scored an away goal in their first leg where they lost 4-1. The scorers on this day were De Rossi, Dzeko and Manolas. Roma had enough to eliminate Barcelona by overturning a 3-0 deficit for the first time in the history of the UEFA Champions League.

Manchester City just one win away from winning the EPL

Manchester City won 3-1 away to Everton and are just 3 points away from winning the English Premier League. They are already being called the Champions Elect thanks to their amazing performances this season. On the day of the return of the EPL from the international break, Leroy Sane broke the deadlock early on in the match. Sane’s fine volley on the 4th minute brought a buzz at the away end in Goodison Park and brought confusion to Sam Allardyce’s team. Gabriel Jesus added salt to the wounded side when he followed that up with a fine headed goal on the 12th minute. 2-0 was the scoreline under 15 minutes and this was not great start for Everton. When Raheem Sterling scored the third on the 37th minute, it was already game over for the Merseyside club. City ran with the lead at the break and Everton never looked like they could do anything about that. Yannick Bolasie tried to initiate what would be a great comeback against the high fliers by scoring on the 68th minute but that was it. Everton were poor on the night in front of their fans and they have to go back to the drawing board and find solutions on how to beat the best teams in the league. Their ambitions of fighting for Europe with the clubs like Tottenham and Arsenal are very far from their capabilities hence the need to be patient. City however are just a win away from being crowned the champions and this can be made special if they win it against their rivals United.