Analysis: Manchester City - Liverpool

On Tuesday evening, the attention of the English football fans will be attracted to one object – the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, where the Citizens will host Liverpool in the round 20.

Classification and teams’ condition:
Manchester City and its local opponent - United – are leading the Premier League. Both teams have collected 45 points, but their advantage over Tottenham is only 3 points. Liverpool is taking the 6th place, but it has as many points as Chelsea and only 2 points less than Arsenal London.

Potential and team situation:
Manchester City did not use the defeat of a local leader and lost on Sunday (undeservingly) against Sunderland 0-1. Despite the numerous scoring chances the Citizens failed to beat the amazing goalkeeper of the Black Cats - Simon Mignolet. David Silva – the brain of Roberto Mancini’s team - was fielded only in the second half. Given the statistics of the match it is difficult to say that the Citizens are suffering a crisis, but it should be noted that the players from Manchester lost 7 points in five previous matches. The team of the Italian coach can now only dream about the high wins. Liverpool has done itself justice for the first time since a long time ago. Kenny Dalglish’s team won against the Magpies from Newcastle at the Anfield Road 3-1. Steven Gerrard returned to the squad. The Reds’ captain, as well as Craig Bellamy, who scored two goals, performed really well. Liverpool will play without Suarez and Lucas Leiva, and the City, in turn, will play the strongest side (but without Tevez and Hargreaves).

History of the meetings:
Liverpool is a very unsuitable rival for Manchester. It is enough just to look at the meetings statistics of these teams for the previous years. Since the 2003/04 season Liverpool and City has fought 19 times in various tournaments. Three wins of the Citizens, 7 ties and 9 losses do not bode well for Roberto Mancini’s footballers.

Predictions and justifications:
This is not the same Manchester City it was at the beginning of the season. Since it left Champions League the team from the Etihad has not been playing as well as it did in the first half of the season, and the team of the Italian coach scored only 5 goals in the 5 previous games. The Reds also have problems with the efficiency. Liverpool and United have the best defense in the entire Premier League. We believe that there is a great probability that there will not be scored more than 2 goals in this match.

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