Ibrahima Konate's opener and Sadio Mane's brace put Liverpool 3-0 ahead in the first half before Man City fought back to score two second half goals through Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva.
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Liverpool edged past Manchester City in a five-goal thriller in the semi-final of the FA cup at Wembley stadium on Saturday. Six days after a thrilling 2-2 draw at the Etihad stadium in the Premier League, the Reds produced a stunning first half performance to score three goals through Ibrahima Konate’s opener and Sadio Mane’s double. But Man city fought back after the break, reducing the deficit immediately through Jack Grealish before Bernardo Silva scored a late goal.
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What a game this was! ?@LFC battled past a late @ManCity resurgence to seal their place in the #EmiratesFACup Final! ?
Presented by @Cognizant pic.twitter.com/escxAM0mQe
— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) April 16, 2022
Both the teams came into the important cup clash after qualifying for the last-4 of Champions League in the mid-week. Man City had to fight hard against a resilient Atletico Madrid while Liverpool had a comparatively easy tie against Benfica. After the hard-fought goalless draw at Wanda Metropolitano, Pep Guardiola made seven changes to the Man City starting eleven.
In front of a packed Wembley stadium, Man City created the first chance when Jack Grealish’ low strike from Joao Cancelo’s cut back was blocked, but from then on, the opening half was all Liverpool.
The opener arrived from a set piece, as Konate rose above Nathan Ake to get on the end of Andrew Robertson’s corner and headed home past Zack Steffen into the back of the net. It was the central defender’s third goal in as many games.
The Reds then doubled the lead on 17 minutes after an error by Steffen, who was in for Ederson. John Stones passed the ball back to Steffen in goal, Mane sprinted to close down the American keeper and made a sliding tackle, bundling the ball into the net in the process.
Mane completed his double just before the half time. Thiago played a nice little one-two with Trent Alexander-Arnold on the edge of the box before chipping the ball to Mane on the right side of the penalty area. The Senegal international’s first-time volley flew into the bottom corner at the near post. Once again the goalkeeping could be questioned because he was beaten at the near post.
Meanwhile, Man City came out all guns blazing in the second half and immediately pulled one back through Grealish. Fernandinho picked up Gabriel Jesus’ run on the right channel. The Brazilian cut inside past Fabinho before setting up Grealish to slot home.
Few minutes later, Raheem Sterling’s nice little touch allowed Jesus to go through on goal but Alisson quickly came off his line to deny the forward from a tight angle. Twenty minutes from time, Grealish released Jesus on goal with a precise through ball, but once again, Alisson was quickly off his line to deny the 25-year-old.
Mohammad Salah spurned a glorious chance to kill the tie when he chipped wide following a poor backward header from Oleksandr Zinchenko. One minute into the injury time, substitute Riyad Mahrez’ angled shot was saved by Alisson and fell to an onrushing Silva to fire home from inside the six-yard box.
Man City had a chance to take the game to extra time but Fernandinho’s volley from Ake’s assist went over the bar. And then, Sterling’s effort went straight to Alisson.
