LIVERPOOL: Mohamed Salah, the Arab and African Player of the Year, scored yet again as Liverpool handed Manchester City their first Premier League defeat this season with a thrilling 4-3 win at Anfield.
City swaggered into Anfield unbeaten in the top flight in 30 matches and widely heralded as champions-elect amid talk that they could go throughout the entire league campaign without losing.
But 90 minutes later, Pep Guardiola's side were licking their wounds after their first domestic defeat since the FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal last season.
They were beaten at their own game as Jurgen Klopp's team delivered a scintillating display that allayed fears they may struggle follow the sale of Brazil forward Coutinho to Barcelona.
In their first match following Coutinho's exit, Liverpool were on fire from the moment Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain gave them an early lead.
Leroy Sane equalised before half-time, but Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Salah, with his 25th goal of the season, destroyed City after the break with three goals in nine thrilling minutes.
Late goals from Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan made the final score closer than City deserved.
It was a rare chastening experience this season for City, but shouldn't prove damaging to their title bid as they remain 15 points clear of second-placed Manchester United, who host Stoke on Monday.
Liverpool go above Chelsea into third place after extending their unbeaten run to 18 matches in all competitions.
"We will see what it gives us for the rest of the season," said Klopp. "To score four in the week after Phil Coutinho leaves the club is a big statement. To concede three goals was not too cool but as a manager if you play football like we do the rest will come. For tonight it’s perfect — that's a fair result."
Guardiola was magnanimous in defeat. "Congratulations to Liverpool for the victory," he said. "The game was in our hands at 1-1 but our finishing was not good and then it went suddenly to 4-1. You have to be stable when you concede a goal and we were not solid enough. You have to live this kind of situation in the season.
"The reality is we lose the game, we have a week to recover and prepare for the Newcastle game. All credit to the opponent, we know how difficult it is against a Jurgen Klopp team, so aggressive, at Anfield too. We did a good performance apart from a few minutes.
"After the second goal they scored two in a few minutes and it is hard to recover from that. In every press conference for the last few months you have said that the Premier League us done and I always said no. It is still to be done. We will defend our position game by game."
Mohamed Salah scores a stunner as Liverpool end unbeaten run of Man City
Mohamed Salah scores a stunner as Liverpool end unbeaten run of Man City
Hosts Morocco off to winning start at Africa Cup of Nations
- Soufiane Rahimi had a penalty saved in a frustrating first half for much-fancied Morocco
- Win saw Morocco, Africa’s best team in FIFA rankings in 11th place, to extend world-record winning run to 19 consecutive matches
RABAT: Brahim Diaz and Ayoub El-Kaabi scored second-half goals as hosts Morocco got their Africa Cup of Nations bid off to a winning start by beating minnows Comoros 2-0 in the tournament’s opening game on Sunday.
Soufiane Rahimi had a penalty saved in a frustrating first half for much-fancied Morocco, but Diaz fired home from inside the area 10 minutes after the interval at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in the capital Rabat.
Substitute El-Kaabi then got the second with a stunning overhead kick, and the victory on a wet and cold night sets the Atlas Lions up for the potentially tougher tests to come in Group A against Mali and Zambia.
The result also allowed Morocco, Africa’s best team in the FIFA rankings in 11th place, to extend their world-record winning run to 19 consecutive matches.
The game was played out before a crowd of 60,180, with Moroccan Crown Prince Moulay Hassan — who appeared on the pitch ahead of kick-off — and FIFA president Gianni Infantino among those in attendance.
Morocco’s star man and captain Achraf Hakimi also ended up watching the entire game from the bench, with coach Walid Regragui preserving the Paris Saint-Germain full-back who has not played since suffering an ankle injury with his club at the start of November.
It looked set to be a long night for Comoros when Morocco won a penalty in the 10th minute as playmaker Diaz was tripped inside the box by Iyad Mohamed.
But Rahimi’s spot-kick was kept out by the legs of Yannick Pandor as the Comoros goalkeeper dived to his right, and the visitors then succeeded in thwarting their more illustrious hosts for the remainder of the first half.
- Stunning overhead kick -
However Morocco, who also saw veteran center-back Romain Saiss come off injured early on, succeeded in breaking down their opponents after half-time.
Comoros, the tiny Indian Ocean archipelago who are 108th in the world rankings, had their resistance ended as the opening goal arrived on 55 minutes.
Manchester United’s Noussair Mazraoui, starting at right-back with Hakimi not yet quite fully fit, picked up the ball on the right side of the penalty area and squared for Real Madrid’s Spanish-born number 10 Diaz to score.
Morocco, who had seen Neil El Aynaoui almost break the deadlock just before that, then saw space open up although Comoros had a chance of their own as Rafiki Said was denied when clean through on goal.
Mazraoui forced a good save from Pandor before El-Kaabi, of Greek giants Olympiakos, lit up the occasion by meeting a cross in from the left by Anass Salah-Eddine with a magnificent overhead bicycle kick to make it 2-0.
Morocco’s next game will be on Friday against Mali, who begin their campaign by taking on Zambia in Casablanca on Monday.
Elsewhere on Monday, South Africa face Angola in Marrakech before Mohamed Salah’s Egypt — the record seven-time African champions chasing a first title since 2010 — get their bid up and running against outsiders Zimbabwe in Agadir in Group B.
This latest edition of the Cup of Nations is the first to start in one year and end in another, with the final to take place in Rabat on January 18.
