LIVERPOOL: The night started with their team bus being smashed up by beer cans and bottles. It ended with their Champions League ambitions in pieces, too.
Manchester City’s players learnt Wednesday just why a trip to Anfield can be one of the most uncomfortable experiences in European football.
On an evening that will go down in the club’s long and storied lore, Liverpool reduced the best team in England to a rattled wreck by beating City 3-0 in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final match, thanks to three goals in a devastating opening 31 minutes.
In the other quarter-final first leg on Wednesday, Barcelona beat Roma 4-1 thanks to a pair of own goals.
Like Real Madrid, who won 3-0 at Juventus on Tuesday, Barca look assured of a place in the semi-finals. And Liverpool are halfway there as well.
Mohamed Salah with his 38th goal of the season, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Sadio Mane all scored in front of The Kop, leaving City coach Pep Guardiola scratching his head as he paced his technical area and wondering where it all went wrong.
Was it the fact that his players came under attack before kick-off, with Liverpool fans chucking objects at City’s team bus as it traveled along Anfield Road the street running alongside the stadium before turning into the ground? Was it his tactical decision to drop winger Raheem Sterling and play an extra central midfielder in Ilkay Gundogan, a move that completely backfired? Or was it the fact that Liverpool can so often be just too hot to handle going forward? It might have been a mixture of the three. And it leaves City’s dream of a treble — having already won the League Cup and on the verge of clinching the Premier League in record time — in tatters.
“In this room,” Guardiola said to reporters, “I think there is nobody, except the guy talking to you, who believes we can go through. There are 90 minutes more, we are going to try.”
As important as Liverpool’s attacking brilliance in the first half was the team’s defensive resilience in the second half.
City finished the game without having a shot on target “I don’t know how we did that,” Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said and their star players muted.
David Silva was subdued, Kevin De Bruyne played too deep, Gabriel Jesus barely got a touch.
An away goal would have changed the complexion of the match, especially given that Salah hobbled off injured and could yet be a doubt for next week’s second leg at Etihad Stadium.
But, with centre back Dejan Lovren and right back Trent Alexander-Arnold excelling, Liverpool held firm and know scoring one goal in the return leg on Tuesday will leave City requiring an improbable five.
“We beat the best team in the world,” Klopp said.
“But we have to work,” he added. “You celebrate the party only when the party starts.”
From the moment Liverpool scored the opening goal in the 12th minute, City looked shell-shocked.