Erling Haaland helped Manchester City continue to maintain the Premier League title race, when he scored the decisive goal from a penalty to defeat Liverpool 2-1 right at Anfield.
Dominik Szoboszlai's beautiful free kick in the 74th minute seemed to bring an important victory for Liverpool and strengthen the home team's hopes of entering the top 4. However, Man City reversed the situation thanks to Haaland's mark. The Norwegian striker headed in an assist for Bernardo Silva to finish close range to equalize, before sealing the victory on penalties in injury time.
Man City almost scored the third goal in the last seconds when Rayan Cherki put the ball into the net from midfield. However, the goal was disallowed after VAR intervened. This situation also led to a red card for Szoboszlai because it was determined to have hindered a clear scoring opportunity when Haaland rushed down to chase the ball.
With this victory, Man City narrows the gap with league leaders Arsenal to 6 points, while Liverpool is still outside the group with a Champions League spot.
Man City still cannot be eliminated from the championship race
It seemed that Man City's championship hopes were dashed when Szoboszlai opened the score with a beautiful free kick. If Liverpool had maintained that advantage until the end of the match, Pep Guardiola's team would have been widened the gap by Arsenal to 9 points.
But despite not playing really well at Anfield, Man City still managed to rise up in the final stage to win all 3 points, with goals from Bernardo Silva and Haaland.
These 3 points are of course very important, but what is more valuable is the way The Citizens won and the motivation it brought to Guardiola's team, while creating no small psychological pressure on Arsenal.
Arsenal still has a guest trip at the Etihad before the end of the season. And as long as they cannot defeat Man City, the memory of the last two seasons - when they ran out of steam in the sprint and let Guardiola's team take the lead - will still be a nightmare.
This is no longer Man City at its peak, but with Haaland's scoring ability and classy players like Silva, they are still a strong candidate. Man City's championship experience could become a decisive factor if they continue to chase Arsenal until the final rounds.
Winning at Anfield is always a great feat for any team. More importantly, Man City has just proven that they still know how to defeat a big opponent even when they are not in the best condition.
Haaland still knows how to make a difference
Haaland has proven why he is considered one of the most dangerous strikers in the world when sealing the victory for Man City, despite spending most of his time quite faintly at Anfield.
The Norwegian striker entered the match with only one goal in his last seven Premier League appearances, and he also did not make much of an impression in most of the match when lacking his usual explosiveness.
But Haaland is important to Man City precisely because of his ability to decide big matches. In the 84th minute, he suddenly spoke up with a header assist for Bernardo Silva to equalize, after Liverpool opened the score from a beautiful free kick.
7 minutes later, Haaland calmly stepped up to the 11m spot and finished successfully after Alisson fouled Nico O'Reilly. In the most stressful moment of a match directly affecting the championship race, Haaland still showed bravery to score.
