As Manchester City defeated defending champion Liverpool 3-2 to go to the Carbao Cup quarter finals, Erling Haaland scored his 24th goal of the year and Kevin De Bruyne put on a clinic.
The first match after the World Cup break had the two heavyweights serving up a thriller at the Etihad Stadium, and the Premier League champions rightfully prevailed.
In the first half of a thrilling match on Thursday, Fabio Carvalho tied the score after Haaland had taken the lead. At the beginning of the second half of the season, Riyad Mahrez gave City the lead again, but Mohamed Salah quickly equalized with his 15th goal of the year.
The exceptional De Bruyne then gave Nathan Ake his second assist of the contest, and Jurgen Klopp's team failed to reply once more, falling to City for the first time in six games.
Haaland scored the first goal 10 minutes into the game after getting in front of Joe Gomez to volley De Bruyne's accurate cross into the bottom-left corner. Liverpool had been unable to handle City's early intensity.
The Reds suddenly found themselves on par. After James Milner picked him out in the penalty area ten minutes later, Carvalho calmly stroked the ball into the far corner. After being excellently put up by De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Ake were denied by Caoimhin Kelleher before Darwin Nunez missed again.
Just over a minute into the second half, Mahrez scored to surprise Liverpool with a wonderful touch off a feed from Rodri. However, City's advantage only lasted 79 seconds as Nunez displayed amazing speed to run away down the left and selflessly set up Salah for an equalizer.
But just before the hour mark, Liverpool was penalized for another defensive error as they failed to defend a short corner, allowing De Bruyne to whip in an exquisite cross that Ake nodded in.
Nunez missed yet another excellent opportunity when, after racing through the defense and shooting wide of the far post, City held on to win the game.
NO RUST FROM SLICK CITY TO BE SEEN.
City, who hadn't played since the week before the World Cup, were the superior team and deserved to advance to the round of eight after defeating Liverpool for the first time since February 2021.
Although City lost to Brentford in their final game before the break, they still sent a chilling message to their opponents and will now be heavy favorites to win the cup after their run of four straight victories ended last year. Liverpool had defeated Pep Guardiola's team twice this year, but they paid the price for some shoddy play on defense and in the final third.
DE BRUYNE CAN CONTINUE HIS REGULAR DUTIES.
De Bruyne had a terrible World Cup, but upon returning to club duty, the master of Belgium's midfield was by far the finest player on the field.
With his remarkable range of passing and vision, he should have had more than two assists after repeatedly blowing Liverpool open and producing five chances while in control of the game.
FRUSTRATION FOR NUNEZ
Nunez had a very frustrating evening as he failed to score for Uruguay in Qatar and again came up empty here.
He attempted four attempts, including two "huge chances" from which Opta would anticipate a goal, however none of them were successful.
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