Manchester City moved three points clear at the top of the Premier League as a comfortable, if eventful, 3-0 victory over Liverpool at Eastlands maintained their incredible home form.
First-half goals from Sergio Aguero and Yaya Toure were followed by the 72nd-minute dismissal of City midfielder Gareth Barry for a second bookable offense, but within 60 seconds James Milner had extended City’s lead from the penalty spot.
After 10 minutes, City took the lead at a home stadium that had been virtually impregnable last year, the team having collected 52 points out of an available 54 in home league games during the calendar year.
Photo: Reuters
Milner robbed the ball from Dirk Kuyt on the left and found David Silva, whose touch opened the path for Aguero to unleash a 20m shot which should have presented Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina with no problem, only for the Spaniard to allow the ball to squirm under his body and into the goal.
A difficult task was rendered virtually impossible after 33 minutes when City doubled their lead.
Reina made amends for his earlier error when he spectacularly tipped a Vincent Kompany header over his crossbar from a Milner corner, but from the resulting Silva corner, Liverpool’s marking was found wanting and Yaya Toure was allowed the space to guide an unstoppable header into the goal via the underside of the bar.
Events might have unfolded very differently had the visitors taken the game’s first real chance after just seven minutes when Jordan Henderson played a clinical through ball for Stewart Downing, only for the winger to be denied by Joe Hart’s sprawling body.
However, as in that instance, Liverpool’s best opportunities would be limited to the counterattack and, even before the goal, Reina had been forced to save at the foot of his post from Edin Dezko’s shot on the turn.
After his error for the opening goal, Reina was soon tested again when Aguero’s intelligent chip had the goalkeeper back-pedaling to make a solid catch and, in the 22nd minute, Dzeko maintained the pressure with a shot which deflected off Glen Johnson and passed just wide, with Reina wrong-footed.
Liverpool finally found their feet at about the midway point of the clash when Charlie Adam’s 20m free-kick beating the City wall and forcing Hart into a diving save and, moments later, Henderson chanced his arm with a ferocious 25m drive which flew just past Hart’s right-hand post.
Liverpool’s general attacking play improved after Kenny Dalglish introduced Steven Gerrard and former City forward Craig Bellamy as 57th-minute substitutes, but Bellamy’s inaccurate 65th-minute shot from outside the area was the first attempt on goal in the period.
Liverpool were handed brief hope when Barry brought down Daniel Agger and, after a first-half caution for fouling Jay Spearing, he was sent off.
However, within a minute City were further in front when Martin Skrtel checked Yaya Toure in the Liverpool area, conceding a penalty that Milner converted emphatically.
Earlier, Liverpool said they would not appeal against striker Luis Suarez’s eight-match ban for racially abusing Manchester United’s Patrice Evra, the Football Association (FA) said.
“Liverpool FC have this afternoon informed the FA that they will not be appealing the decision of an Independent Regulatory Commission in relation to the recently proven misconduct charge against Luis Suarez,” the governing body said in a statement on its Web site. “Suarez will be suspended with immediate effect for a period of eight matches, starting with this evening’s fixture against Manchester City.”
The Uruguay international, who was also fined £40,000 (US$62,200), was accused of racially abusing the French fullback in Liverpool’s Premier League draw against Manchester United on Oct. 15.
According to a report by the FA, Suarez, who has consistently denied the accusations, used the Spanish word “negro,” which means “black,” or its plural “negros,” seven times during a confrontation between the pair.
Liverpool released a statement in which they were highly critical of the FA’s disciplinary procedure, but said it was time to put an end to the matter.
“Continuing a fight for justice in this particular case beyond today would only obscure the fact that the club wholeheartedly supports the efforts of the Football Association, the Football League and the Premier League to put an end to any form of racism in English football,” Liverpool said on their Web site. “It is time to put the Luis Suarez matter to rest and for all of us, going forward, to work together to stamp out racism in every form both inside and outside the sport. It is for this reason that we will not appeal the eight-game suspension of Luis Suarez.”
The independent panel, who sat in judgment on the case, took advice from linguistic experts in Latin American Spanish after Suarez said he used the term “negro in an affectionate and friendly way which was common in Uruguay.”
The Liverpool player issued a statement reiterating his denial that he had used racist language.
“I’m very upset at feeling so powerless, whilst being accused of something which I did not, nor would not, ever do,” he said on the club’s Web site. “In my country, ‘negro’ is a word we use commonly, a word which doesn’t show any lack of respect and is even less so a form of racist abuse. Based on this, everything which has been said so far is totally false. I will carry out the suspension with the resignation of someone who hasn’t done anything wrong and who feels extremely upset by the events. I do feel sorry for the fans and for my teammates, whom I will not be able to help during the next month. It will be a very difficult time for me.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier