Five years ago today | City 2 Liverpool 1

[Semper aggressus]

Sergio, Vinny, Fern and Sané. Fucking hell, loved that team. We’d be 10 points clear this season if we had them now in their prime.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

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Seen that before, but that is just nuts, isn't it? The difference between being the champions of the most difficult league in the world. Or not.

 

[Alfie Budd]

Yes we were

This was one great game and for my money the best match of the decade. I've seen better displays but never such a high quality, hard fought contest and we won it deservedly. Before the match we were 7 points behind, I think, and the feeling was that anything but a City win would hand the title to Liverpool. The rest of the season showed how true that was! But City were superb! Even without Walker, Gundogan and KdB!! I don't know what my heart rate was at the final whistle but I didn't stop dancing around (the elephant tango?) for ages and for weeks afterwards I watched the highlights every day. What the players felt like god only knows but I think I'm right in saying that we only lost one League match and won all the others until the title was sealed. Marvellous! Unbelievable! Typical City?

Seven points behind at kickoff is spot on so a win was crucial.
Another huge moment in that season came a month later when 24 hours after we lost at Newcastle, Liverpool could only draw at home to Leicester when a win would have restored the seven point advantage. Five points just felt psychologically more manageable for us and of course, we didn’t drop another point from that moment onwards.

 

[youngbob]

Yes we were

Seven points behind at kickoff is spot on so a win was crucial.
Another huge moment in that season came a month later when 24 hours after we lost at Newcastle, Liverpool could only draw at home to Leicester when a win would have restored the seven point advantage. Five points just felt psychologically more manageable for us and of course, we didn’t drop another point from that moment onwards.

The one good thing Harry Maguire has ever done in his career was score that goal.

Would also add them dropping points at United on the day we beat Chelsea in the League Cup final. That was a chance for them to get a big win on the board during a week where we weren't playing and they fluffed it. Watched that game in a rough-as-fuck pub in Edgware - Power's Bar. Hopped on the tube to Wembley as soon as the game ended.

 

[lasereyes]

The atmosphere was something else that day. I have some friends who were in the away section (and follow Liverpool home/away/Europe). They said it was the most hostile crowd they've ever witnessed.

Why dont they post that on RAWK, eliciting a perma-ban

 

[vmsuhail]

Let’s be honest could and should have been a red.

Vinny said after the game he didn't want Salah to go anywhere with the ball. It was kind of funny he was justifying it was a good tackle.

 

[vmsuhail]

Bernardo that night though.

Celebrated winning a throw-in towards the end. So many memories from that game.

 

[lasereyes]

One of the most impressive games in PL history. Both teams run 120km, it was incredible.

What made the performance and the win even more special was the fact that we played without KDB and with a makeshift defence (Danilo at RB and Laporte at LB).

Bernardo and Fernandinho - 2 of the finest performances I've seen from City midfielders that night

 

[lasereyes]

Going into that game, Liverpool were runaway leaders and the hype machine was in full flow. Their acolytes were declaring them the best premier league team ever and the players had started to believe it. This game was our last chance to keep the title race alive. A draw and it would have been over.

What I remember the best isn't even on that highlight video. After they equalised there's a shot of their players celebrating - Van Dyke is amongst them. Their celebration is not like ours. There's a smugness in their eyes where they are looking at each other as if to say "See - they thought they could take us on". Van Dyke is the worst but the others have it too. That Liverpool team was the most arrogant team the premier league has seen since the Keane/Neville United team and that was the night their pomposity got pricked.

Also, we had just lost back to back games to Palace and Leicester. I remember Pep's pre-game presser - "Nobody believes in us anymore"

 

[Pablo ZZZ Peroni]

Agreed. Was saying this over the summer that, as much as it's expected (and fair enough) for our treble-winning side to be considered the best ever, the 18/19 side is joint if not better. We absolutely would have done all four as well were VAR not a factor. At the time, I was a bit concerned that a joint run at the Premier League and Champions League might have been too much, especially against that Liverpool side, but we were in such a good flow that, barring that chaotic game against Spurs, it was absolutely on. Funny how if it'd literally come one season earlier Raheem would have been "just about level" and we'd have gone through.

I think our side in 22/23 from March to June is the greatest City side of all time but over the course of a whole season it's the 18/19 team. We were literally a couple of wins away from completing the set. We had the expansive and technical forward play from the Centurions season, and Sergio was as devastating as ever, but we were much tougher and grittier at the back, which meant that we were never likely to get hammered like 5-1 on aggregate like we had done against Liverpool that previous year. We were just that bit more solid and apart from a crazy period where we played Spurs three times in 10 days, definitely would have bypassed Ajax and done the lot.

One mark against a quadruple in that season, though, is that Pep absolutely would have left. I remember him saying at the time that he'd have gone in the summer if we'd won the Champions League in 2019. In a way, maybe that Raheem disallowed goal ended up being a blessing in disguise.

My sentiments exactly there about the 18/19 team and, indeed, 22/23.

Some fun facts from the 14 game winning streak at the end to win it:

• conceded only 4 goals in the 14 games which is pretty insane
• not behind in any game with the exception of Brighton for 1 minute
• score was 0-0 at half time in 6 of the games - so lots of tension waiting to score first
• but, latest we were leading was the Vinny goal at 70 mins