Nathan Ake headed goal helps Manchester City knock out rivals Liverpool to claim a place in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.
The Dutchman converted in a beautiful cross from Kevin De Bruyne at the Etihad Stadium to put City ahead for a third and decisive time in an almost ending contest on Thursday.
Liverpool made a goal earlier to equalize City’s goals from Erling Haaland and Riyad Mahrez through Fabio Carvalho and Mohamed Salah respectively.
Man City and Liverpool certainly delivered on their return tonight!
But it’s Pep Guardiola’s side who are into the last eight of the EFL Cup.
City’s starting line-up contained six of the 16 players they had on duty at Qatar 2022 along with a couple of high-profile non-World Cup attendees in goalscorers Haaland and Mahrez.
Haaland showed signs of rustiness when he fired an early chance well over the bar. The Norwegian soon got that out of his system and, after further chances fell the way of Cole Palmer and De Bruyne, he opened the scoring after 10 minutes.
Haaland finished in typical fashion, nipping ahead of the defense at the near post and guiding a volley past Stefan Ortega from a De Bruyne cross.
It was his 24th goal in just 19 appearances for City since his summer move from Borussia Dortmund.
Until this point Liverpool had struggled to strong passes together but they eventually began to gain a foothold and caught City napping to level 10 minutes later.
Joel Matip found James Milner in the area and the former City midfielder squared for an unmarked Carvalho to turn a well-placed shot beyond Ortega’s reach.
The game livened up and Kelleher denied Ilkay Gundogan with his feet before turning away an Ake header, both chances having been created by De Bruyne.
The second half began in dramatic fashion with Mahrez brilliantly controlling a lofted Rodri pass and curling home a left-foot shot.
The celebrations did not last long as Liverpool levelled again little over a minute later.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain released Nunez with a fine ball and the Uruguayan laid Salah a pass for his sixth goal in six outings and his third against City this season.
Defending did not appear a priority for either side and Liverpool were punished again when De Bruyne made a fine ball in a for Ake, having stayed forward following a corner, to head, giving City the lead once again.
Liverpool tried again once more but Nunez again missed the target having been played in on goal.
