Liverpool vs Manchester City Betting Tips (16/10/22) – How Do You Solve a Problem Like Erling Haaland?

Talk about a game of two halves! Liverpool’s woes looked set to be going from bad to worse when they fell behind to a Scott Arfield opener at a predictably raucous Ibrox on Wednesday evening.

Thankfully from the perspective of Reds’ fans, it wouldn’t be long before Bobby Firmino – in the best goalscoring form of his career – levelled matters with a header from a Kostas Tsimikas corner.

The first half was a nip and tuck affair that neither team truly dominated, so whatever Jurgen Klopp said to his troops said to his break worked a charm. Firmino was in the right place at the right time to slide home Joe Gomez’s cross, and by the 66th minute Liverpool were two to the good – Darwin Nunez curling home a sublime strike to hush the lively home crowd.

That strike signalled a changing of the guard from Klopp, with Mo Salah, Thiago and Andy Robertson entering the field of play.

And it would be the Egyptian that reminded everyone of his talents with an outrageous seven-minute hat-trick, which it won’t surprise you to learn is a Champions League record (pub quiz fans might want to know that the previous holder was Bafetimbi Gomis with an eight-minute treble for Lyon against Dinamo Zagreb back in 2011).

This was vintage Salah: an opportunist’s finish, a stunning curling effort and a trademark dip of the shoulder before firing home brought the winger his hat-trick in the blink of an eye.

Almost matching Salah for brilliance was the intervention of Diogo Jota, who assisted all three of the Egyptian’s goals – another Champions League record, needless to say.

There was still time for Harvey Elliott to add the ultimate cherry to the cake with a seventh, with the youngster volleying home to confirm that Liverpool need just a point from either of their remaining group games to qualify for the last 32.

Finally, some reasons to be cheerful for Liverpool fans. Hang onto those, as Manchester City are the visitors to Anfield on Sunday.

Liverpool Team News

It was great to see Ibrahima Konate finally make his long-awaited return from injury at Ibrox, while Andy Robertson’s 25-minute cameo in his homeland confirms that he too is nearly ready for selection from the start.

There’s still plenty of bad news, of course, with Luis Diaz out until Christmas and Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joel Matip also absent for the next few weeks.

The midfield cupboard looks particularly bare, with Naby Keita, Curtis Jones, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Arthur Melo all on the treatment table.

But you can only play with the cards you’re dealt, and there might be some temptation on the part of Klopp to go with the side that finished the game against Rangers on Sunday.

Realistically, can you go up against this City side with a formation that is effectively 4-2-4? That seems far-fetched and potentially even sado-masochistic, so we expect a return to Klopp’s more traditional 4-2-3-1 with Joe Gomez continuing at right back, Konate in the middle alongside Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson restored on the left.

A midfield three of Fabinho, Jordan Henderson and Thiago will provide the ballast behind Salah, while surely Firmino – given his form – will play through the middle with Jota to his left?

Manchester City Form

City’s 0-0 draw in Copenhagen really was the rarest of aberrations for Pep Guardiola’s side, who had a 100% record in this season’s Champions League at that point.

And that’s to say nothing of their Premier League form, in which they remain unbeaten and averaging more than 3.5 goals per game scored – yes, you read that correctly.

The crumb of comfort for Liverpool fans is that their side has lost just one of their last six meetings against the champions….

Liverpool vs Manchester City Betting Tips

Right, deep breath, as we try to analyse what is going to happen on Sunday.

Let’s stick to the basics first of all. Manchester City have been far and away the better of these two teams this term, and Liverpool’s inability to keep clean sheets will surely come back to haunt them here.

But how aggressively do you want to be against a team that won 7-1 in midweek….especially knowing that Klopp has tactically had the better of Pep in their most recent meetings?

Forget the outright markets, stick to goals here. Both of these sides are much more effective in attack than defence, and Over 2.5 Goals has landed in seven of their last eight encounters.

The bookies are onto that, of course, but Over 3.5 Goals is available at 23/20 and Over 1.5 first half goals at 11/10 seems more than fair given that both will eager to assert their dominance on this game.