By OVIRI KELVIN
Ma n c h e s t e r City were held to a 2-2 draw at Etihad Stadium by Liverpool to keep the English Premier League title race open to both sides on Sunday.
Pertinent as the match was to both clubs, neither was able to take advantage to either leapfrog or extend the lead at the top of the EPL table.
A win by Liverpool could have seen the Reds topple Manchester City on the top of the EPL table with two points lead while on the reverse, Manchester City would have extended the point difference to four.
Liverpool had on two occasions canceled out Manchester City’s goals through Diogo Jota and Sadio Mane’s goals after Kevin De Bruyne and Gabriel Jesus gave the host a lead in the match.
Jota, signifying Manchester City to be very good in their performances at home games, described the match as very intense. Speaking with BBC Sport after the match, he said, “Very intense game.
They are very good at playing at home. We tried to do our best but we felt, in the end, we could have done a little better. They had their chances and we had ours too. We were fighting until the end.
“We tried to condition their game the way they wanted but they are obviously very good at what they do so it’s not easy. You know sooner or later you can steal one or two balls and it’s a football game so you need to take advantage of your chances,” he added.
However, Manchester City which will play Liverpool on Saturday, April 16, 2022, in the FA Cup semi-finals, will travel to Spain for the second leg Champions League clash with Atletico Madrid on Wednesday, April 13, 2022.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid are set to step up their chase for Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haagland after their prime target, Kylian Mbappe, made a U-turn to probably extend his contract with Paris SaintGermain.
The Spanish football giant committed to rebuilding the team ahead of next season had penciled French international Mbappe as one of the targets to boost the team’s attacking lineup.
However, with Mbappe not firmly willing to forge a move to Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid has decided to step up its pursuit to snap up the promising young Norwegian from the clutches of Manchester City, The Trumpet gathered.
City is one of the clubs seeking to offset the £67 million release clause of Haaland at the end of the season and has promised to make him one the highest-paid players at Etihad alongside Belgian Kevin De Bruyne.
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With Los Blancos most likely missing out on bringing Mbappe to the Santiago Bernabeu, Manchester City which hopes to fill the void left by the departure of Sergio Aguero will have to face a stiff contest with President Florentino Perez over the 21 years old Dortmund star.
Manchester City are keenly in need of a striker and had previously, last season, had its bid for Harry Kane of Tottenham rejected.
Haaland has scored a total of 23 goals this season comprising 16 goals in the Bundesliga and third in the chart of the highest goal scorers in the German league.
