City title hopes hit by Liverpool win

Date published: 14 April 2014


LIVERPOOL manager Brendan Rodgers is trying to stay calm - despite his team’s victory over rivals Manchester City, which has edged the Reds closer to the title.

The 3–2 win at Anfield leaves the Merseysiders four matches in which to end a 24–year championship drought. But City boss Manuel Pellegrini believes the race is far from over.

Though the victory over City was significant, Rodgers insists next weekend's trip to Norwich is of equal importance.

“The message is just to continue,” he said after a 10th–successive league win. “We don’t need to change. We play with no fear, whether is a big opponent like Manchester City, or Norwich next week.”

Rodgers paid tribute to his side’s strength of character after they looked to be wobbling when David Silva and a Glen Johnson own goal cancelled out strikes before the break from Raheem Sterling and Martin Skrtel.

“Getting pegged back to 2–2 we may have gone on to lose that game when I first came in here, but we dusted ourselves off and went again and the level of some of our football was so good we ended up getting a terrific goal,” he added.

“The performance level of the players was sensational – to dominate as we did in the first half with that energy and intelligence was remarkable.

Pellegrini defended the decision to play Vincent Kompany, who had been a doubt before the game after sustaining a knee injury in training on Saturday.

The City captain lost Skrtel for the second goal and his misjudgement allowed Coutinho to rifle in the winner but his manager did not accept that was down to a fitness issue.

‘It is difficult to know,” added the Chilean.

“He warmed up and said he was perfect to play and didn’t have any problems.”