In a midweek when neither Manchester City nor Liverpool won, those two clubs emerged as the major winners.
Sandwiched between a crucial Premier League meeting between them in Manchester last Sunday, and their FA Cup semi-final at Wembley today, City and Liverpool continued their seemingly inexorable path to a Champions League final meeting in Paris at the end of next month.
Advertisement
Both still have serious hopes of winning a treble (for Carabao Cup winners Liverpool, a quadruple is still on) but either could end up with none of the three trophies left because of the strength of the other.
And that makes for a truly remarkable situation: the two outright best clubs in England battling for the Premier League, FA Cup and European Cup going into the final six weeks of the campaign.
It brings to mind that run of four meetings between Barcelona and Real Madrid across 18 days in the spring of 2011: Barcelona got a draw at the Bernabeu en route to beating Real to the La Liga title by four points (96 to 92), Real defeated Barca 1-0 in a Copa del Rey final that went to extra time, and Barcelona eliminated Real from the Champions League in a two-leg semi-final.
You could also compare it to the situation in Germany in 2012-13: Bayern and Dortmund met in the Champions League final and the DFB-Pokal quarter-finals, and the two clubs finished first and second in the league. Then again, Bayern did win the title by 25 points, as well as their encounters in Europe and the cup, so it wasn’t that much of a fight.
Of course, Real Madrid and Villarreal do still stand in their way in the Champions League semi-finals, and the winner of this FA Cup semi-final must defeat whoever comes out on top between Chelsea and Crystal Palace tomorrow to lift that trophy.
But it wasn’t simply their progress to the last four that made a European Cup final between City and Liverpool more likely — they would also have been pleased to see Chelsea and Bayern, probably the two leading contenders for the tag of third-best side in European football this season, eliminated on Tuesday evening.
Real Madrid defeating any side in the Champions League can hardly be considered a shock, but Pep Guardiola will probably be delighted to avoid a Chelsea side capable of matching their intensity and tactical intelligence. Madrid, for all the brilliance of Karim Benzema and Luka Modric, aren’t a particularly cohesive side. Meanwhile, Villarreal are difficult opposition, and their coach Unai Emery is a master of getting through two-legged ties, but Liverpool will start their first leg at Anfield on April 27 as overwhelming favourites.
Both will find they’re up against the reverse of what they faced this week. Liverpool, having defeated an open, attack-minded Benfica, must now break down a dogged, disciplined Villarreal. City, having kept their cool against an ultra-cynical Atletico Madrid, will face much calmer opposition in Atleti’s city rivals Real.
Advertisement
But what Wednesday’s games demonstrated was the contrast between the two sides.
At times, the difference has been difficult to decipher this season: the two managers’ footballing styles have clearly become more similar in recent years, and on Sunday, it was arguable that City played more like Liverpool, and Liverpool played more like City. City went long, and Liverpool tried to find players between the lines.
Wednesday, though, was back to what we expect. City are superior at controlling the game and having extended spells of possession in the opposition half. Granted, they lost control in the second half and needed some last-ditch defending to keep a clean sheet, but they limited Atletico to 0.85 xG, according to Opta, having not allowed them a single shot in the first leg at the Etihad.
You’d always fancy City to get a 0-0, partly because their defensive record is excellent and partly because they sometimes struggle to score at the other end. If they fail to win the title this season, goalless draws with Southampton and Crystal Palace — and perhaps another somewhere in their remaining seven games — might prove fatal, and the chatter about their lack of a proper No 9 will become particularly audible.
Meanwhile, City have only been involved in two Premier League 2-2s this season: both against Liverpool, who have also drawn with Tottenham, Chelsea and Brighton by that same scoreline, and had a 3-3 against Brentford. Klopp’s side haven’t had a goalless league game yet in 31 outings, and are instead regularly involved in frenetic, back-and-forth, end-to-end goalfests, just like their 3-3 with Benfica at Anfield on Wednesday.
If you’d avoided the scores and been told that one of the English clubs playing that night drew 0-0 and one drew 3-3, you’d be fairly confident of working out which had done which.
Advertisement
Wednesday’s games also showed what we shouldn’t be missing in this domestic rivalry — the type of petulance and gamesmanship demonstrated by Atletico throughout their second leg with City. Some observers are frustrated by the friendship between Klopp and Pep Guardiola and the two sets of players’ respect for one another. They want some needle, some ferocity, some genuine hatred.
That mass scuffle towards the end in Madrid was entertaining but that type of vitriol and nastiness becomes exasperating over time. It creates bad football matches and tends to spill over into off-field incidents between supporters, too, particularly in an age of social-media abuse.
His rivalry with then-Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho in Spain eventually prompted Guardiola to quit Barcelona because he found it all so draining, and also created a rift in Mourinho’s squad that he has, arguably, never entirely recovered from. It was mutually assured destruction on the part of the managers, and while Barca and Real continued to win European Cups over the next few years under different coaches, they were never entirely as dominant as during that 2010-12 period.
City and Liverpool meet for the third time this season today, both aiming to defeat the other for the first time after those 2-2 draws in the league. It’s a cup tie now, so somebody must emerge as the winner on the day.
The loser, you suspect, won’t have to wait long for a shot at revenge.
(Photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
