City EDS held by Liverpool in goalless Etihad clash

Despite having more of the chances throughout the game, especially in the second half, Brian Barry-Murphy‘s side couldn’t break down a stubborn Liverpool defence. 

The result leaves City eight points clear at the top of the Premier League 2 and extends our unbeaten run to nine games. 

WHAT HAPPENED

City’s EDS initially struggled to find our rhythm, with the high Liverpool press keeping us within our own half. 

The visitors had the ball in the net within the first ten minutes, only for the linesman’s flag to disallow Max Woltman’s strike, before James McAtee went down in the penalty box at the other end, only for referee Daniel Middleton to book the City midfielder. 

We had to ride out a period of pressure from the visitors, with ‘keeper Mikki van Sas called on to save two goal-bound efforts from Woltman and winger Jack Bearne. 

But City, who throughout looked dangerous on the counter-attack, came the closest to opening the scoring, with great play from Liam Delap and McAtee releasing Sam Edozie into Oscar Kelly’s path, before the Liverpool stopper palmed away the winger’s effort.

And we started to hit our stride come the end of the half, as fine play from Oscar Bobb played in Kwaku Oduroh to fizz the ball across the box to Liam Delap, but the striker couldn’t get any contact on the cross, seeing the scores remain goal-less at the break. 

Into the second period, City remained on the front foot, and nearly got our breakthrough when James McAtee‘s low free-kick had to be punched away by Kelly. 

Entering the final 20 minutes, we had a golden chance to grab the opener, with a mazy run into the box seeing Delap and Edozie going for the ball at the same time from close range, the end result seeing the ball fly over the bar. 

City remained the dominant force throughout the rest of the half, but we could have conceded at the death when the ball was squared to Liverpool’s Dominic Corness inside the area, only for the substitute to poke the ball wide of the target, as the game finished goalless. 

HOW WE LINED UP

Mikki van Sas got the nod for the goalkeeper’s spot at the Etihad Stadium, with a backline of Kwaku Oduroh, CJ Egan-Riley, Luke Mbete and Tomas Galvez protecting him. 

Romeo Lavia returned to the side, coming back into the defensive midfield role alongside Darko Gyabi. 

Barry-Murphy was then able to select an attacking midfield trio of Oscar Bobb and Sam Edozie flanking James McAtee, with Liam Delap taking up the central striker duties. 

TEAMS

CITY Starting XI: van Sas, Oduroh, Egan-Riley (C), Mbete, Galvez, Lavia, Bobb, Gyabi, Delap, McAtee, Edozie

Subs: Katongo, Slicker, Charles, Breckin, Borges 

LIVERPOOL Starting XI: Kelly, Bradley, Norris, Williams, Koumetio, Clarkson, Bearne, Morton, Woltman, Clayton (C), Balagizi

Subs: O’Rourke, Hewikson, Corness, Quansah, Wilson

WHAT IT MEANS 

The draw sees us increase our lead at the top of Premier League 2 to eight points over West Ham. 

But whilst there are only three games left in the campaign for the EDS, West Ham have five to go, which could see them reduce that current deficit. 

UP NEXT 

Following the international break, the EDS will be back in action in a crucial away clash to third-place Arsenal. 

Kick-off in London will be at 19:00 (GMT) on Monday 4 April.