Dubai, UAE / TEH: In a position that may determine the winner of the English Premier League title this year, defending champion Manchester City hosts their stubborn chase, Liverpool, in the strongest matches of the season.
City leads the standings with 73 points, one point ahead of the Egyptian star, Mohamed Salah, and therefore the victory of one of the two teams will guarantee him greater chances of winning the title, and a tie means that the competition between them may continue until the last match.
The difference in points between the two teams had reached 14 points, before Liverpool rose up with a series of great matches to achieve 10 victories in a row that enabled him to return and compete fiercely for the title.
What increases the intensity and excitement of the competition between the two teams is that they will meet twice this month, the first in the league at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, and then meet again a week later at Wembley Stadium in the FA Cup semi-finals, and may also meet in the Champions League final. ball, next May.
And about the fierce competition between the two English giants, Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola said before the start of the match: “When I retire and enjoy playing and watching golf matches, I will remember that the strongest opponent I faced during my training career was Liverpool.”
He continued, “When you achieve 100 points and 98 points in the season, you need someone to push you from behind to stay at the top,” according to the Spanish newspaper AS .
As for Liverpool, Reds coach Jurgen Klopp said he had his entire squad ready for the “Etihad match”, telling online magazine The Eastern Herald on Friday: “When I looked the last time at my smartphone, it seemed to me that everyone was ready to play.”
The German coach revealed that Brazilian midfielder Fabinho is “fine” despite suffering a head injury after colliding with defender Nicolas Otamendi in Liverpool’s 3-1 Champions League win over Benfica on Tuesday.
On the other hand, Klopp defended the team’s top scorer, Mohamed Salah, after the latter’s level declined, saying: “He has been exposed to very difficult situations recently. The Egyptian star played 120 minutes in almost 6 matches. In fact, I did not know about the stories around him. Just that he should come back to sharpness, that’s what I thought, not the reports that I wrote about him in the media.”
This will be the third time in four seasons that Manchester City or Liverpool occupies the first and second places in the English Premier League.
