Manchester City 3-0 Liverpool: Haaland, González and Doku shine as Guardiola celebrates 1,000th game in style | OneFootball

Manchester City marked Pep Guardiola’s 1,000th game in management with a dominant 3-0 win over Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium. Erling Haaland missed an early penalty but made amends with his 99th Premier League goal, before Nico González’s deflected strike and a brilliant Jérémy Doku curler finished the job.

Liverpool had a Virgil van Dijk header ruled out for offside interference and created a few second-half chances, but Giorgi Mamardashvili’s penalty save turned out to be their only high point on a day where City’s wide players – especially Doku – were on a different level.

As it happened

City started fast, immediately feeding Doku on the left. The Belgian beat his marker repeatedly and had Liverpool scrambling, while Mohamed Salah’s early break at the other end was halted by Rúben Dias and Gianluigi Donnarumma.

In nine minutes, Doku combined with Rayan Cherki and drew a foul from Mamardashvili. VAR confirmed the penalty, but the keeper guessed right to deny Haaland. The miss didn’t slow City down. Matheus Nunes soon whipped in a cross from the right, and Haaland towered above Ibrahima Konaté to head into the far corner for 1-0.

Liverpool briefly thought they were level when Van Dijk powered in a header from a corner, but Andy Robertson – standing offside in Donnarumma’s eyeline – saw it ruled out. Moments before the break, Nico doubled City’s lead with a deflected shot which left Mamardashvili stranded.

After half-time, Liverpool tried to push higher through Salah and Florian Wirtz, but City’s control never wavered. Doku stayed electric on the break, tormenting Conor Bradley and constantly winning ground. When Nico O’Reilly burst forward and played him in again, Doku cut inside and curled a stunning finish into the far corner to make it 3-0.

The visitors kept swinging. Cody Gakpo went close, Dominik Szoboszlai forced a fine save, and Salah missed a late chance, but City were cruising. Guardiola substituted Doku to a standing ovation, and his side calmly played out the final minutes of a commanding 3-0 victory.

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