By Victor Kanayo
Manchester City Thursday night overcame holders Liverpool 3-2 in a pulsating fourth round EFL cup clash at Etihad stadium to zoom into the quarter-final stage, four days after 2022 World Cup ended in Qatar.
The English Premier League defending champions will face Southampton in one of three all-Premier League clashes in the last eight encounter.
Nigeria’s Super Eagles star Joe Aribo is one of key players for Southampton also known as the Saints.
Back to how the fourth round EFL match panned out, Liverpool were forced to weather a heavy, early storm but managed to spring forward 10 minutes later to level against the run of play courtesy of Fabio Carvalho’s smart low finish.
That was after striker Erling Haaland’s 24th minute opener for City.
The end-to-end nature of the cup tie continued right from the restart as a wonderful touch and strike from Riyad Mahrez was immediately cancelled out by a flowing counter-attacking goal from Jurgen Klopp’s men that was finished off by Mo Salah.
City continued to look the more likely though and Nathan Ake put them back in front for a third and final time when he arrived late to nod in another de Bruyne cross on 58 minutes.
Darwin Nunez had missed two glorious openings towards the end of the first period and he blew the visitors’ final big chance to thwart City when he dragged another attempt wide of target.
In the other quarter-final games, while Manchester United battle lowly Charlton, Nottingham Forest will face Wolves as the two Premier League relegation battlers face off ahead of the semi-final.
Finally, Newcastle take on Leicester as both sides look to add silverware this season.
Liverpool will return to Premier League action at Aston Villa on Boxing Day while Man City visit Leeds United on Wednesday December 28.
