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Coutinho’s Stunning Winner Breaks City Hearts

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Image for Coutinho’s Stunning Winner Breaks City Hearts

Liverpool-v-Manchester-City-Philippe-Coutinho_3120270It was an emotional day all round on Sunday afternoon when Liverpool took on Manchester City due to the game taking place before the 25th Anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. A poignant mosaic and minutes silence was observed impeccably before the whistle. The fans were in full voice and filled the ground with noise to be the 12th man once more; it felt like a proper European night in the sunshine.

It was definitely a roller-coaster of a match with a happy ending for Brendan Rodgers and the fans.

It was great to see a high tempo start from the Reds, they would not let the City players settle with the ball, hunting them down like a pack of animals at every opportunity. City could not handle the sheer pace of Raheem Sterling and he got his reward on 7 minutes when opened the scoring.

A long ball was launched up from the Liverpool back. Suárez won it against Demichelis and then held off the challenge of Clichy with his behind. He then played a delightful through ball into the box for Sterling who kept his cool sending Kompany and Hart one way before poking the ball into the net the other way. I must admit I thought that Raheem may screw the chance up when through on goal, but he demonstrated his calmness of mind and confidence in scoring the goal.

Liverpool were extremely unlucky not being two up when they won a corner: the ball was played in and Gerrard, completely unmarked, headed for goal and glory. A brilliant reaction save from Hart stopped that but gave Liverpool another corner. This one was taken from the left (by Gerrard) and Skrtel beat Kompany to the ball and doubled his side’s lead to send Anfield into rapturous celebration. City looked totally stunned.

The introduction of James Milner in the second half gave Manchester City the energy but also allowed David Silva to get a foot-hold within the game and to get their passing movement going. And sure enough they pulled a goal back through the Spaniard. City worked the ball down the right-hand side and Flanagan just switched off for a nanosecond. This allowed Milner to nip in and pull the ball back from the goal-line to Silva who tucked it away from close range.

Now it was just wave after wave of City pressure and you just knew what was going to happen and on 62 minutes Dzeko played his way down the left hand side before cutting the ball back for Milner. He threaded the ball into the box for Nasri. The Frenchman played the ball on to Silva whose cross-come-shot at the far post turned into the net by the toe of Johnson.

Anfield went deathly silent – you could hear a pin drop; we the fans had our heads in our hands (the equalizer happened right behind where I was sitting in the Kop) we just looked deflated as though we had blown it.

I am not saying that what I did next was the inspiration (maybe at the end of May it could turn out to be) but I rallied the fans and the crowd with a Stevie G Istanbul lift of the hands as to say come don’t let this be the end let’s pull together. I looked at the clock and said a prayer and looked to the sky thinking ‘please!’.

I never thought the winner would happen in the way it did but I am very grateful to Vincent Kompany. Johnson took a throw near the corner flag on the right. It landed on the head of Clichy and he headed it back to Kompany. He completely mis-kicked his clearance and instead of it landing in the Liverpool half it lands at the feet of Coutinho. He ran onto it and then curled the ball with power and precision into the corner of the City net. Anfield erupted like a frustrated volcano.

When the fourth official lifted the board with 5 minutes of added time, it was the longest 5 minutes of my life it was like the clock was going backwards and time had stood still. By the final whistle I was in tears and I am not ashamed to say it especially when Stevie gathered his team-mates in the huddle and said

Listen. Listen. LISTEN!……Do NOT let this slip OK? Do NOT let this SLIP!….. Listen, this is gone. We go to Norwich. Exactly the same. We go together. Come on!”

It was certainly a powerful speech and you could see how the match had affected his emotions – a sign of relief so to speak.

Statistics from the match – courtesy of @AnfieldIndex, @ged0407, @BassTunedToRed

  • 7th goal for Sterling
  • 12th assist for Suarez
  • 100th goal in all competitions for LFC in 2013/14
  • Skrtel’s 7th goal of the season!
  • Stevie G’s 10th assist of the season!
  • Manchester City hadn’t conceded in the first 15 mins all season- Liverpool have scored most in the first 15!
  • LFC had scored as many goals in their last 14 league games as they did in the whole of 2011/12
  • Liverpool has scored more goals in their last 26 league games (80) than in every previous complete season in the Premier League era.
  • Raheem Sterling’s goal was Liverpool’s 13th of the season in the opening 15 minutes – only 4 times in the Premier League era has a team scored more
  • Coutinho’s winner was the 200th under Brendan Rodgers in all comps and their 1400th in the Premier League era.
  • Liverpool have now scored 93 league goals this season – a club record for the top-flight.
  • Liverpool reached the landmark of 50 league goals at Anfield this season – the first time since 1985-86 they have achieved the feat.

YNWA JFT96!

Follow me on Twitter @MRSSG

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I am a lifelong Liverpool supporter from Huyton Liverpool just like Stevie G and go all over the world supporting my team I go the games in my wheelchair as I suffer from Cerebral Palsy however that does not stop me having a ball cheering on the World’s Best Team.
I write a weekly column talking about various topics whether that is tactical analysis of matches, opinion pieces, looking through the archives of previous matches, former players and current articles on Brendan and the first team.
It is great being part of the first class writing team at Live4liverpool.com and bucking the trend in being the first woman to write for the site.
Follow me on Twitter @MRSSG to keep up to date with my articles. Y.N.W.A

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