In a clash to move top of the Premier League table, a 1-1 draw left the two sides behind first-place Arsenal, with one point (and goal difference) now separating the three at the top of the tree.
A set piece routine, a Nathan Ake mistake, and a huge VAR decision in the dying embers of the game, this fixture didn't disappoint for the last iteration of Guardiola vs Klopp in England.
But what did Liverpool do to regain control of this game after going 1-0 down, and how did Jurgen Klopp's Reds manage to pin City back? Let's take a look...
CITY SET-PIECE GOAL
Firstly lets just touch on City's set piece routine that gave them a 1-0 lead in the first half.
As you can see from the image, Ake is being used as a blocker at the near post, stopping Alexis Mac Allister getting to the front post to clear the ball.
From this, Kevin De Bruyne puts a perfect ball in at the front post, where John Stones attacks, running across Ake's path and away from Darwin Nunez, to finish past Caoimhin Kelleher.
By getting this goal, City have the ascendancy, this is usually a massive positive as scoring the first goal gives you control of the game state, allowing a possession heavy side such as City to settle more on the ball, draw Liverpool further forward and attack space in behind.
But where I thought this would be City's time to take control, instead the first half faded out, and then a mistake early in the second half from Ake, under hitting a pass back to Ederson caused him to give away a penalty, and from this point Liverpool really grew into the game.
LIVERPOOL ENERGY AND CONTROL
Early in the game (first 20 minutes), City were managing to get both of their number 10's around Wataru Endo, receiving the ball and causing him issues in 2v1 overloads.
The spaces between the midfield three for Liverpool were too large, allowing the passing gates (space between two players e.g. Endo and Mac Allister) to be bigger, and easier to pass through and progress through the lines into the 10's.
Klopp looked to make changes after the first 20 minutes, noticing these spacing issues and the lack of control in midfield areas early on.
The change made was to minimise the distances between the midfield three, bringing the two wide players narrower, and looking to force City wide, stopping their central progression routes.
This meant the passing gates were smaller (harder to pass through) as shown by the red lines in this second image.
The athleticism of Liverpool made this even more effective, as they could cover the ground between the pivot of City and the City 10's, choosing their points to press and recover the ball, then allowing them to break at pace (another use of their athleticism) and attack the spaces left behind/between the back three of City.
Here above is a perfect example of how the Liverpool midfield made things more compact, closing the passing gates into Bernardo Silva and De Bruyne, and then using this as their trigger to press the ball as the pivot players moved higher up (into their half).
This allows Endo to jump, win the ball back and Liverpool can now break.
Dominik Szoboszlai above breaks here with the ball, giving it to Luis Diaz to go 1v1 with Kyle Walker, ending in him getting a shot on goal (saved).
This was a common theme throughout the second half especially, as after Liverpool scored their goal their energy only increased, continuing to press City with perfect synergy between the players, keeping the lines tight and when they won the ball, breaking with purpose.
Anfield began to get louder, City players started to get frustrated, and as the game went on, Liverpool continued to grow in confidence, taking a real control of the game (something you don't often see happen against Manchester City).
Here above was another example later in the game, Liverpool breaking and finding the space behind Walker in the channel (circled in yellow) which ended in Diaz going 1v1 with Stefano Ortega (subbed on for Ederson who got injured) but putting his shot high and wide.
LIVERPOOL BOX MIDFIELD vs CITY'S 4-4-2 PRESS
The last thing I want to speak about is the way Liverpool dominated central areas against City's 4-4-2 pressing structure.
City in their press/defensive structure went into a 4-4-2, John Stones stepping back from the pivot into the defence, and De Bruyne stepping forward to form a front two with Ering Haaland.
This left Rodri and Silva as the two central midfielders in this structure, and the box midfield of Liverpool formed of Endo, Mac Allister, Szoboszlai and the inverting Harvey Elliot allowed the Reds to assert their dominance.
Klopp's side often managed to overload that central area, using Elliot to drop in and provide that central overload, giving them the extra man in build up to keep the ball.
The high positions of Conor Bradley from right back, and Diaz on the left wing stretched the pitch, causing the City wide men (Phil Foden and Julian Alvarez) to cover the passes into those wide men, meaning that box midfield could dominate centrally.
CONCLUSION
To conclude this game, I thought City's opening 20 minutes was impressive, finding the overload between the lines and getting a set piece goal to change the game-state, and give them control of the fixture.
However what Liverpool did from that point impressed me even more, the key word being energy, but this was provided by some tactical tweaks that allowed them to control central areas, cut off City's central supply (De Bruyne and Silva) and then attack the space left behind.
Buckle in, this title race is going to be absolutely amazing to see unfold!