Pep Guardiola likes surprises.

The Manchester City coach sometimes comes up with special line-ups for special football matches.

That has gone terribly wrong.

In the Champions League final last year, for example, Guardiola did without defensive midfielders – and lost.

Ahead of Sunday's top game in the English Premier League against Liverpool FC, he had another amazing idea.

Tobias Rabe

Responsible editor for Sport Online.

  • Follow I follow

Hardly anyone had expected Gabriel Jesus in the starting XI.

The Brazilian has hardly played in recent months.

He scored his last goal in the league in September.

But Guardiola surprisingly relied on Jesus – and was not wrong.

The attacker even scored a goal (37th minute) when the leaders made it 2-2 in a duel with pursuers Liverpool when he shot a cross under the crossbar.

City are a point clear of Liverpool with seven games remaining.

The head-to-head race at the top continues on the home stretch, even if Jürgen Klopp prefers to compare the game on the Sky TV channel with another sport: "It was wild, like a boxing match.

As soon as you had both arms down, a hard hit came straight away.”

His team had to take a few of those.

Liverpool disappointed in the duel, which had been hyped up for the biggest game in Europe, in the first half.

After an early lead by Kevin de Bruyne (5th) after a deflected shot on the inside of the post, Diogo Jota (13th) equalized after a clever discard from Trent Alexander-Arnold.

But City got better by the minute in a game with no respite, partly because Liverpool got worse by the minute.

The defense made some dangerous ball losses, the attack could hardly assert itself.

But Manchester did not capitalize on their superiority.

"We let them live," said Guardiola afterwards.

Klopp shook his head at half-time but apparently found the right words.

Not a minute was played again, it was 2:2.

Mohamed Salah served Sadio Mané with an accurate pass.

The statics of the game, in which the Brazilian goalkeepers Ederson and Alisson Becker sometimes impressed like playmakers with impressive passes with their feet, changed.

Now Liverpool were closer to the opening goal.

It went back and forth at an insane pace.

The final punchline in this spectacle was almost Manchester.

Substitute Riyad Mahrez hit the outside of the post with a free kick (90') and lobbed the ball over Alisson in injury time, but also over the goal.

"We feel like we missed a great opportunity," said Guardiola.

De Bruyne also struggled: "We played well, but we're a bit disappointed."

It doesn't take long for everyone to see each other again.

After Wednesday's quarter-final second legs of the Champions League - City travel 1-0 ahead of Atlético Madrid, Liverpool welcome Benfica Lisbon after a 3-1 win - the semi-finals of the English Cup are on the agenda.

On Saturday Liverpool and Manchester play at Wembley Stadium for a place in the final of the FA Cup.

And that doesn't have to be the last duel of the season either.

It wouldn't be a surprise if Guardiola and Klopp played for Europe's soccer crown with their spectacular teams in the Champions League final on May 28 in Paris.