By Vivem Soriano
Eagle News Service
Manchester City’s dream of winning Europe will have to wait again until next year after English rivals Liverpool’s 2-1 away victory at the Etihad Stadium knocked the Premier League leaders out of the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Liverpool will now advance to the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League via a 5-1 aggregate victory against Manchester City.
Manchester City came in to the match confident that they would be able to overturn Liverpool’s 3-0 lead. City defeated the Reds 5-0 in their first Premier League meeting in September last year
Brazilian forward Gabiel Jesus kept City’s hope alive with a stunning quick goal just two minutes in to the game.
Manchester City had a goal disallowed due to offside just before the halftime whistle which would have cut the deficit to a single goal.
City manager Pep Guardiola furiously protested the disallowed goal, earning him the ire of referee Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz who sent him off the pitch.
Liverpool wonder Mo Salah then scored a sublime goal at the 56th minute before Roberto Firmino finally put away Manchester City for good with a goal at the 77th minute.
This was another disastrous game for Manchester City, who just 3 days ago let slip a 2-goal lead in a stunning 3-2 home loss against cross-city rivals Manchester United.
Meanwhile, Liverpool will be in the Champions League semis for the first time since 2008. They have won the tournament five times already, the most for any English football club. The last time they won the tournament was in 2005, winning over Italian side AC Milan on penalties at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey.
