Two phenomenal goals from Jordan Henderson and Philippe Coutinho gave Liverpool a monumental 2-1 victory over Manchester City, who missed the opportunity to close the gap on Barclays' Premier League leaders Chelsea at Anfield.
Henderson's sensational 25-yard effort opened the scoring in the 11th minute, before Sergio Aguero struck the post only a minute later. The Argentine played a huge role in City's equaliser, playing a lovely reverse ball into Edin Dzeko, who finished coolly. The Reds were by far the better of the two teams in the second-half, and Coutinho's terrific strike from outside-of-the-box in the 75th minute gave the Reds the three points as they moved just two points off of 3rd placed Manchester United.
The game started as it meant to continue, frantically. Within only two minutes, City were almost in as Edin Dzeko did brilliantly well to deceive Emre Can with his back to goal, before spinning and playing a cute inside pass to Sergio Aguero - but the Argentine was narrowly offside.
Despite the scrappy state of the Anfield pitch, it did little to affect the quality of the game in the early stages. Poor defending from the visitors, with both Eliaquim Mangala and City captain Vincent Kompany following the run of Raheem Sterling, allowed Coutinho to play a through ball for Adam Lallana to get in behind. But with Mangala hurrying across to tackle him, the English international rushed his shot and Hart saved comfortably.
Despite most of their players having endured the full 120 minutes in Turkey on Thursday nighthe Reds began to found their groove and less than a minute later, Brendan Rodgers' side had the ball in the net. After Philippe Coutinho retrieved possession and found space near the corner flag, he cut a cross into Lallana at the near post. The 26-year-old controlled brilliantly, turned on a sixpence and fired a powerful effort over Hart and into the roof of the net only to see the offside flag correctly raised.
Yet the Reds only took two minutes to net the game's first goal. After a Kompany error allowed Coutinho to press and seize possession, the Brazilian surged forward and found Sterling. The youngster played the ball out to Jordan Henderson out on the left. Cutting inside and deceiving Fernandinho, the stand-in skipper curled a tremendous right-footed strike into the top-right corner to send the home crowd into raptures.
The pace of the game did not let up and almost immedately from the restart, Manchester City came close to an equaliser. After latching on to a long Silva ball upfield, Aguero took advantage of Simon Mignolet's hesitancy to make his way into the box. With the Belgian rushing out, Aguero did brilliantly to dink an early effort beyond him, but the shot rebounded off of the post and away from danger.
Despite striking the post, City were on the back foot. Finding joy down the left, Alberto Moreno sprinted into space before cutting inside and blazing a shot wide of the mark. A minute later, a lively Coutinho did excellently to weave past the challenge of Pablo Zabaleta before finding Sterling with a sensational outside-of-the-boot through ball. The 20-year-old stood up against Mangala, before dribbling past the flat-footed Frenchman and reaching the byline. But after all his hard work, his low ball rolled across the box was not met by a teammate as the Reds' struggled to take advantage of their momentum.
They were soon made to pay for it, as before the half-hour mark, City equalised through brilliant attacking play. It started with Yaya Toure, who found an unmarked Silva in between the lines. The Spanish playmaker played it into the path of Aguero. Charging across the edge of the box, Aguero attracted a number of defenders towards him on the as he looked to line up the shot. But the striker slipped a ball into the feet of his partner Dzeko, who stroked an effort through Mignolet for his 50th Premier League goal, and City's equaliser.
With that, the game's ferverent pace settled. The lull of the game allowed Liverpool to recover and regain a hold of the game. A few minutes after Silva and Dzeko linked up well again, before the Bosnian fired high over Mignolet's goal, the Reds looked dangerous in the final third themselves.
Lazar Markovic, who had been relatively quiet beforehand, played a terrific chipped ball over the defence and into Lallana. Running into the area and having beaten the offside trap, Lallana opted for a first-time effort, which he could only direct a yard wide of the far post with Sterling screaming for the square ball.
The Reds continued to gel. After a lovely team move, Coutinho could only shoot straight at Hart from 30-yards, but they continued to create opportunities. Shortly before half-time, the troublesome pairing of Sterling and Lallana almost came to fruition. The latter's flick almost allowed Sterling to give his side the lead once more, but from close-range, he cut back inside on his right foot and could only scuff his shot straight at Hart in the final chance of the first 45 minutes.
Only 20 seconds after the break, City should have given themselves an early second-half advantage. Nasri found Zabaleta, who had managed to make a smart overlapping run down the right flank, and the defender's cross from the byline found Aguero at the near post. Despite rising well, and with Mignolet beaten all ends up, the usually prolific forward could only head over the crossbar.
After the momentary lapse in concentration, Brendan Rodgers' hosts soon picked up their intensity once again as they searched for a second goal. Lallana continued to trouble, after being slipped a neat pass by Coutinho. The midfielder moved wide and tried to find Sterling, who zipped past Zabaleta inside the box. But with the cross just behind him, Sterling could only side-foot the effort narrowly wide of the post.
Lallana had the ball in the net for a second time in the 53rd minute after Fernandinho had fouled Coutinho. The ball swung in towards Skrtel, who headed down to Lallana across the box - but the offside flag was again raised, whilst the Slovakian centre-back also looked to have fouled Dzeko in the aerial duel.
The game then suffered another lull in proceedings, with the pitch interrupting either side's hopes of smooth passing play. Liverpool enjoyed the better of the ball, but just could not create any clear-cut opportunities. Henderson looked to clip a ball over the City defence in search of Moreno and though Zabaleta misjudged the flight of the ball, Hart was quick off his line to collect and thwart any chance of another goal.
City still had plenty of threat themselves. Zabaleta did well to buy a cheap foul out of Moreno down the right, which Silva then wasted with a harmless delivery.
Then out of nowhere, a moment of magic. A week after his stunning long-range strike gave helped Liverpool to a huge win over Southampton, Philippe Coutinho popped up again when it mattered. Cutting inside from the left, and onto his right-foot, Coutinho found himself in a yard of space and bent an unbelievable powerful curling effort past Hart.
The Reds clung on desperately in a nervy finale, and Aguero came close to notching another qualiser. After Silva's ball in towards Bony was met by Skrtel, the ball fell to Aguero. He did absolutely excellently to wriggle past Skrtel inside the box, but could only whistle his shot wide of Mignolet's far post from a tight angle.
Substitute Daniel Sturridge then had the perfect opportunity to seal the win. After Yaya Toure was picked off by Henderson 25-yards from his own goal, the midfielder fed Sturridge. Moving inside the box, the striker opted for the far corner but could only drag it just wide.
The game was end-to-end right until the last minute, and shortly before stoppage time Yaya Toure's powerful driving run through the defence looked like it might end up in an equaliser. But after dodging two tackles, the ball fell to Silva, who could only send an effort wide of the post - the final chance that City ended up having, as their run without a win at Anfield since 2003 continued.
Despite an intense finish, Rodgers' side ensured they hung on to claim victory from an entertaining clash. Manuel Pelligrini's side are now five points off of Chelsea, who have an extra game advantage, whilst Liverpool maintain their 11-game unbeaten streak in the league as they close in on the UEFA Champions League places.
| Liverpool (3-4-3) (2) | Manchester City (4-4-2) (1) | ||
 |  |  | .jpg) |
| Mignolet | 6 | Hart | 6 |
| Can | 6 | Zabaleta | 6 |
| Skrtel | 5 | Kompany | 4 |
| Lovren | 6 | Mangala | 6 |
| Markovic | 5 | Kolarov | 5 |
| Henderson | 7 | Fernandinho | 6 |
| Allen | 8 | Yaya Toure | 6 |
| Moreno | 6 | Nasri | 6 |
| Lallana | 6 | Silva | 7 |
| Coutinho | 9 | Dzeko | 6 |
| Sterling | 7 | Aguero | 7 |
| Substitutes: | |||
| Sturridge | 5 | Milner | 5 |
| Toure | - | Bony | 5 |
| - | - | Lampard | - |