Liverpool and Manchester City will play twice in April, the first potentially decisive in their struggle to win the Premier League title at the Etihad Stadium, and the second in the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley.
In the late seventies of the last century, Liverpool faced similar circumstances with its rival at the time, Nottingham Forest, who faced him 13 times in 3 seasons.
By contrast, Sunday's FA Cup semi-final meeting was the first in 23 years, and it's been even longer since it was the biggest game on the English football calendar, when Nottingham were a tough figure in the Premier League.
The competition is back again between Reds Liverpool and Reds Nottingham.
After an absence of more than 23 years, we meet again!
✊pic.twitter.com/DqyXtEWTgA
— Liverpool FC (@LFC_Arabic) March 19, 2022
Liverpool is the closest to winning the Premier League
Ihab Zenga, the coach of the US military football team and lecturer for coaches, analyzes the position of City and Liverpool in the conflict between them in the Premier League, by confirming that City is bleeding after reducing the difference in points with Liverpool to one point.
Zanga - who heads the American club Lagasse - told Al-Jazeera Net that he senses the high incentives for Liverpool to settle the Premier League title after obtaining the English League Cup at the expense of Chelsea, although in light of the remaining matches, City will not face any of the senior teams in the remaining nine matches except for him. Liverpool, the match will be at the Etihad Stadium.
The remaining nine matches for City will be against teams: Burnley (19), Liverpool (2), Brighton (13), Watford (18), Newcastle (14), Aston Villa (9), Wolverhampton (8), Leeds United (16) and West Ham (7).
As for Liverpool’s confrontations, it may be relatively more difficult with teams: Watford (18), Manchester City (1), Aston Villa (9), Everton (17), Newcastle (14), Tottenham (5), Southampton (11) Wolverhampton (8) and Manchester United (6) .
Zanga says that despite the difficulty of the remaining matches for Liverpool compared to Manchester City, Liverpool is more likely to win the title due to the interconnection of its lines and the ability to play directly on the goal through its distinguished attackers, led by Mohamed Salah, the top scorer of the tournament so far with 20 goals.
Enjoy with us Mohamed Salah's 20 goals this season in the English Premier League 😍
This is the fourth time that the Egyptian king has reached this number in five seasons 🇪🇬👑pic.twitter.com/7bDKMXW19Z
— Liverpool FC (@LFC_Arabic) March 13, 2022
The Reds also enjoy the presence of Alisson Becker, the distinguished goalkeeper who makes the difference in most matches, in addition to the players' confidence to finish matches in their favour, even at the last breath, and this has been repeated several times in previous matches.
Zenga adds that despite the statements of some of the big players in City that they are determined to win the league, he believes that through his observations, the team began to lack focus in ending the attacks and not ending the match with the same strength that it started with, in addition to the repeated mistakes on the defensive side, which confirms his theory weakly. Focus the players at crucial times.
federation cup fight
No sooner had the Liverpool players felt comfortable making their first appearance in the FA Cup semi-final under the leadership of their coach Jurgen Klopp over the course of six full years, until attention turned to the confrontation with Manchester City, which experts consider an early final for the tournament.
Great pass by Tsimikas and a perfect finish by @DiogoJota18 😍
De Gaulle practices his favorite hobby and sends us to the FA Cup semi-finals 👌⚽️pic.twitter.com/j4HxCbo3PY
— Liverpool FC (@LFC_Arabic) March 21, 2022
Some City fans will view these two games with trepidation as they are trapped either side in the Champions League quarter-final against Atletico Madrid, although last Friday's draw at Nyon could have been worse for Pep Guardiola's side had they faced Liverpool as well.
Facing Atletico under coach Diego Simeone will be a great challenge for City as well. Guardiola has faced Simeone only 3 times during his career, winning twice and losing once.
One of those gains was a few months after Simeone was appointed.
The other was a technical defeat for Guardiola, as Bayern Munich went out on the away goals rule in the 2015-2016 UEFA Champions League semi-finals, despite winning the second leg 2-1.
City between the hammer of Atletico and the anvil of Liverpool
It is certain that next April will be decisive for Manchester City and Liverpool alike, as City will face Atletico on the 5th and 13th and Liverpool on the 10th and 16th of the difficult month.
Despite the challenges posed by opponents and other matches for the two teams, there is already a feeling that City and Liverpool can ultimately determine each other's harvest of the season, first in the Premier League and the FA Cup, and then in the Champions League final, a possible "happy" confrontation between the two teams in Stade de France, in the capital, Paris, if they pass the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the tournament successfully.
Klopp predicted this, saying, "We knew before the game (the quarter-final) that City would be the opponent if we wanted to go to the (FA Cup) final anyway. Now here we are, the more you advance in any competition, the more likely you are to face City at some point." .